Dwayne R. Edwards
Brigadier General Dwayne R. Edwards (U.S. Army Reserve, retired), head of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biological System Engineering, has been appointed as the interim commandant for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. Edwards will serve as the interim commandant until the arrival of U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. William H. Seely III, who has been named the next commandant of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.
Brigadier General Dwayne R. Edwards was commissioned as a second lieutenant as a graduate of the Arkansas Military Academy, serving as an infantry platoon leader, weapons platoon leader, and detachment commander/company executive officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard prior to transitioning to the U.S. Army Reserve. In his career in the Army Reserve, Edwards commanded at the company, battalion, brigade, and division levels with staff assignments as battalion operations officer, brigade operations officer, and training command operations officer. His command assignments include the 362 Psychological Operations Company at Fayetteville, Arkansas, 4/399th of the 100th Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky, 7th Brigade of the 80th Division at Salem, Virginia. As a general officer, he served as Deputy Commanding General of the 108th Training Command at Charlotte, North Carolina, Commanding General of the 98th Training Division at Rochester, New York and Fort Moore, Georgia, and Deputy Commanding General of the 99th Regional Support Command at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He is a graduate of the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, Command Arms Staff and Services School Course, Psychological Operations Officers Course, Command and General Staff Officers Course, Army War College, and the Army Strategic Leadership Development Program (Basic and Intermediate).
Brig. Gen. Edwards’s academic background includes bachelor’s and master's degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Arkansas, a Ph.D. in agricultural Engineering from Oklahoma State University, and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Army War College. His awards include the Legion of Merit (with oak leaf cluster) and Meritorious Service Medal (with four oak leaf clusters). He is also an inductee of the Arkansas Military Academy Hall of Fame.
Brig. Gen. Edwards’s civilian career includes tenured research and teaching faculty positions at the University of Arkansas and University of Kentucky. He is now Professor and Department Head of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since January 2020. Specializing in surface hydrology and water quality, Edwards has authored over 80 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts and over 100 proceedings articles, conference publications, and other scholarly products. He is the recipient of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering’s New Holland Young Researcher Award and will be recognized as the 2024 recipient of the Society’s James R. and Karen A. Gilley Academic Leadership Award. He was named a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Arkansas College of Engineering and is an inductee of the Arkansas Academy of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
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