Collegiate Times

For many professors, it can be a struggle to balance classes and students with the independent research and development projects into which they invest so much of their time and energy.

However, one Virginia Tech engineering professor just got a little help from the MacArthur Foundation, a private grant-making establishment that annually hands out what have come to be known as its prestigious "genius grants."

Marc Edwards was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation out of thousands of nominees to join the group of about 20 other individuals, all selected for a position in the MacArthur Fellows Program. This program looks for individuals who are enormously creative within their respective fields and offers them a "no strings attached" stipend to fund their research projects.

According to the Foundation's Web site, there are three general criteria that the Foundation considers when selecting its new Fellows: "exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work."

 "We are betting on these people making a difference and dare enough to make that bet. We call them up, tell them we've been watching them and that we like what they're doing, give them $500,000 and say 'go for it,'" said Daniel Socolow, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, of the criteria behind the program's selection process.

Edwards fits the criteria of this high honor owing to his research on the issue of lead contamination in the drinking water of Washington, D.C. public schools - a dangerous crisis that has been largely overlooked.

Edwards' research has already found that D.C. schools have had a continuing problem with lead contamination in their drinking fountains in recent years. He has also found that there are no current laws to protect the schools' water.

"The amount of lead in the drinking water is enough that if it were lead in a toy, the toy would be recalled and taken off the market," Edwards said.

So far, there have been two reported cases of children with elevated blood -ead levels, with the cause of the problem assumed to be the contaminated water from school fountains.

In order to mitigate this problem, Edwards, in partnership with the parent-based D.C. children's environmental group Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives, has been collecting water samples and running comprehensive tests on them to assess the current risk factor. The samples are analyzed at Tech with the help of undergraduate and graduate volunteers within the engineering program.

The tests offer better insight on the problem and have opened the doors to a way of preventing it. Filters have been installed in the sample schools and are monitored by Edwards and his team to ensure they work properly. Once the problem in D.C. has been resolved, the group hopes to spread its work to other cities, hopefully making drinking water safety a vital issue nationwide.

With the support of the MacArthur Fellows Program, Edwards has been able to lend his scientific prowess to a real-life problem, bringing an important issue to the forefront of scientific discourse.

Edwards' partnership with Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives has had a significant impact in the process of keeping lead contamination under control, potentially saving lives.

"Bridges between science and community groups can lead to immensely fruitful efforts. I commend Dr. Edwards and Virginia Tech for their cooperation," said Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou, president of Parents for Nontoxic Alternatives.