Kevin Olsen is the Instrumentation Specialist on the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department’s support staff at New Jersey’s Montclair State University. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire and a Master’s degree in chemistry from Montclair State University. He is now enrolled as a part time student in the Environmental Management PhD program at Montclair State.

Before coming to Montclair State Kevin has worked in the environmental, instrumentation, and pharmaceutical industries. He is active in the American Chemical Society, Laboratory Robotics Interest Group, and a number of local history organizations.

His current research interests include contaminated estuarine sediments. He is also active supporting research by Montclair State faculty members and graduate students.

As an historian Kevin has published a number of papers related to chemical history and New Jersey’s maritime history. His work has appeared in the American Neptune, The Encyclopedia of New Jersey, and the Highlander. He is the author of A Great Conveniency, Maritime History of the Hackensack River, Passaic River, and Newark Bay. His papers on chemical history have appeared in the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry and the Indicator, the news magazine of the North Jersey Section, American Chemical Society.

Sediment Chemistry in the Gateway National Recreation Area

This broad survey of sediment conditions uses pyrolysis - GC/MS to identify biogeochemical markers of estuarine health.