Dr. Olya S. Keen
Research interests:
- Emerging contaminants: detection and analytical chemistry; environmental effects; fate and transport; treatment processes; transformation products in the natural and engineered systems
- Wastewater treatment and water reuse: advanced treatment technologies; resource recovery; applications for municipal effluent reuse, graywater reuse and in-house treatment and reuse for buildings and industries
- Ultraviolet-based processes and advanced oxidation processes: direct and indirect photolysis in natural and engineered systems, UV and ozone based advanced oxidation processes, photocatalysis
See “Research” tab for current and recent projects and an overview of analytical capabilities.
Research group news:
03/20/2025
Chideraa Ndubuisi received a 2nd place Best Poster Award at NC WRRI conference in Raleigh for his work with microplastics in biosolids.
11/04/2024
Chideraa Ndubuisi received 2nd Place Poster Award at NC One Water student conference for his poster on microplastics in wastewater biosolids.
02/29/2024
Chideraa Ndubuisi received a student grant from the NC Water Resources Research Institute for his project entitled “Assessment and Mitigation of Microplastic Pollution in Treated Wastewater and Biosolids: A Focus on Primary and Secondary Solids”.
11/13/2021
Kelsey Sikon received People’s Choice Award at the university 3MT competition for her research on microplastics in wastewater
02/16/2019
Xueying was one of the eight finalists of the Three-Minute Thesis competition at the Conference for Southern Graduate Schools in Knoxville, TN. Congratulations, Xueying!
11/09/2018
Xueying Brown won UNC Charlotte’s Three-Minute Thesis competition – both First Place and People’s Choice! – and will be representing our university at the Southeast Region competition. Her presentation was based on her work studying the role of environmental buffers in potable water reuse.
09/07/2015
PhD student Nicole Kennedy Neth and Dr. Keen traveled to Malmo, Sweden, to present their research at the International Water Association NOM 6 conference. Travel was funded by NSF travel award No. 1521562.
06/07/2015
Dr. Keen was appointed as a Chair of Organic Contaminants Research Committee for the American Water Works Association
03/25/2015
Keen Lab research was in the spotlight at the 2015 Annual Meeting of American Chemical Society in Denver. Watch the press release video or read the ACS article
The featured research studied the products that form when a common antibiotic doxycycline is exposed to chlorine during water disinfection.
09/25/2013
Dr. Keen received an award from the International Ultraviolet Association for Best UV Research Paper for the Year 2012 for her journal article “The role of effluent nitrate in trace organic chemical oxidation during UV disinfection” co-authored with Drs. Karl Linden and Nancy Love and published in Water Research.
