Dr. David Edwards was a long-standing Harvard University faculty member, and is an inventor, author, and pioneering aerosol scientist.
David is passionate about improving human health and wellbeing through science and consumer-centric design. His inventions, startups, and creative environments in the US, France, India and Africa have aimed to improve lives through the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water that sustains us. From his first invention of porous aerosols, which led to the FDA-approved Imbrijia for Parkinson’s, and his discovery of the hydrating benefits of salts in the airways during the first SARS outbreak, David has been researching the possibilities of airway hygiene for two decades. His career-spanning work led to the first airway hygiene platform: FEND.
Dr. Edwards has appeared on television and radio programs around the world, including CNN, BBC World News, ABC, Fox News, and NPR, and his work featured in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Le Figaro, Le Monde, and elsewhere. Over the last two years he has often appeared in the media as an aerosol expert sharing advice on how to best respond to the evolving circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. His research has been cited by the CDC in their Scientific Briefing which updated policymakers and leaders worldwide on the airborne transmission of COVID-19 via respiratory aerosol particles. His recent published research highlights the role hydrating salts play in maintaining effective clearance of inhaled airborne particles and thereby reducing health risks. David will appear as a speaker at the Life Itself Conference alongside leading public health figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, Bill Gates, and Stephane Bancel.
David was Professor of the Practice of Bioengineering at Harvard University in the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences from 2001 to 2019. He transitioned to an Associate Professor in 2019 in order to lead the founding of FEND, and participate in the conceiving and growth of Next Breath, a non-profit focused on cleaning the air breathed by habitants of low- and middle-income countries where respiratory disease is the principal killer. David is also founder of Senses, a new Cambridge, MA restaurant focused on organic, regenerative cuisine, and Incredible Foods, an invention for which he received his first Time Magazine Invention of the Year (2014), before receiving his second Time Invention of the Year (2020) for FEND.
David has received many international honors and awards, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the USA and in France, a member of the National Institute of Inventors, and a Chevalier of the Arts & Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. His recent book Creating Things That Matter (Holt 2018) won a 2018 Nautilus Book of the Year Award.
David can be found on Instagram and as the author of the Breathe Better Challenge: a 21-day SMS challenge aimed to help people breathe better — and to learn how (sign up here).