Dr. Dorina Magdalena Chipara is a Lecturer in the department of Physics and Geology. She received her Ph.D. (Atomic and Molecular Physics, 1998), M.S. (Polymer Physics, 1979) and B.S. (Physics, 1978) from the University of Bucharest, Romania. She joined UTPA as a postdoctoral researcher within the Department of Mechanical Engineering (under the supervision of Professor K. Lozano).

 Dr. Dorina Chipara has conducted research on a wide variety of inter-related material science topics including: accelerated degradation of polymers used in nuclear plants in order to estimate their lifetime (thermal degradation in air and in oxygen rich atmosphere, mechanical degradation and radiation induced degradation) and the preparation and characterization of nanomaterials, self-healing materials, and nanomaterials used for neutron detectors.

 Before joining UTPA, Dr. Dorina Chipara was Senior Research Scientist, at the National Research and Development Institute for Electrical Engineering, Romania as well as head of the Research and Testing Insulating Materials and Systems Laboratory. She has also worked as Senior Research Scientist at Parttec Ltd., Bloomington, Indiana.