Biographical Sketch:
Professor Colina obtained her Ph.D. at the North Carolina State University (2004) and her B.S. (1993) and M.Sc. (1994) at Simón Bolívar University. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has been a faculty member at Simón Bolívar University and joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University as Associate Professor in July 2006. She won the 1999 Award for Outstanding Teaching Achievement (at the Assistant Professor level) at Simon Bolivar University, as well as several other awards from the Venezuelan's National Committees from the Development of Higher Education and for the Academic Advancement. She has several
international collaborations and has presented the results of her research globally in more than 65 national and international conferences. She has published over 35 papers (including conference proceedings).

Area of Research:
Professor Colina utilizes the fusion of materials and computational sciences to obtain solutions to problems that were previously intractable. This fusion creates the opportunity to engineer materials for applications to separations, sensors, microelectronics, drug delivery, and biomaterials. Her group uses materials theory, modeling and computer simulation, with methods ranging from molecular-based equations of state, with a rigorous statistical mechanics basis, to high-performance computer modeling. Her group also has a synergetic relationship with experimentalists, and several national and international collaborative programs, such as polymer-solvent experiments performed by collaborators at Virginia Commonwealth University and National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” in Greece.

Current areas of research by Professor Colina fall into three areas. The first area is the improvement of polymer-based processes by gaining a fundamental understanding of polymeric materials.  She is developing new methodologies for predicting the effect of specific interactions (self and cross-association) of polymeric materials and their environment. The second area is the behavior of materials under conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. This area is of significant interest in many fields, including petrochemicals, combustion, propulsion, and detonation.  The third area is certain aspects of human pathology associated with a number of diseases, such as hemophilia B and von Willebrand disease. She is studying the growth of macromolecular aggregates when proteins dock in a highly orientated manner. Her research interests in this area span a wide range of applications, from structural biochemistry to biosensors.

Journal Articles and Publications:
1. Colina, C. M. and K. E. Gubbins, “Vapor-Liquid-Liquid Equilibria of n-Perfluoroalkanes/Carbon Dioxide/n-Alkanes Ternary Mixtures”, J. Phys. Chem. B. 109, 2899-2910 (2005).

2. Bouza, A., Colina, C. M. and C. G. Olivera-Fuentes, “Parameterization of Molecular-based Equations of State”, Fluid Phase Equilib. 228-229C, 561-575 (2005).

3. Walker, T. A., Colina, C. M., Gubbins, K. E. and R. J. Spontak, “Thermodynamics of Poly(dimethylsiloxane)/Poly(ethylmethylsiloxane) (PDMS/PEMS) Blends in the Presence of High-Pressure CO2”, Macromolecules, 37, 2588-2595 (2004).

4. Striolo, A., Colina, C. M., Gubbins, K. E., Elvassore, N. and L. Lue, “The Depletion Attraction between Pairs of Colloid Particles in Polymer Solution”, Molecular Simulation, 30, 437-449 (2004).

5. Colina, C. M., Olivera-Fuentes, C. G., Siperstein, F. R., Lísal, M. and K. E. Gubbins, “Thermal Properties of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide by Monte Carlo Simulations”, Molecular Simulation, 29, 405-412 (2003).