Mariya Munir is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). She earned her undergraduate degree in Biotechnology (2008) and a master’s degree (2010) and a Ph.D. (2014) in Environmental Engineering from Michigan State University. She then joined Virginia Tech as a Postdoctoral Researcher studying the effect of humidity on influenza A virus transmissibility in the environment. After joining UNC Charlotte in 2016, she established the Environmental Microbiology lab in CEE department located at EPIC building. Her primary research interest is in detection, removal, and inactivation of emerging biological contaminants in water and wastewater systems.
Her research focuses on four main area: Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment, Sustainable water/wastewater treatment, Metagenomics and Microbial Water Quality and Public Health related issues. Her experience on application of environmental microbiology techniques in studying antibiotic resistance bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater treatment plants provides a strong background for her research on COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, she is involved in tracking SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater treatment plants in Charlotte and the UNC Charlotte campus wastewater COVID-19 surveillance study.