In 2014, after serving three years as Adjunct Part-Time Faculty of Chemistry at St. Thomas University , Dr. Pina became Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the School of Science, Technology & Engineering Management. She has extensive experience in teaching as a full faculty professor of Chemistry at Havana University from 1969 to 2001. In the U.S. she has worked with institutions such as Nova Southeastern University/Fischler School of Education and Human Services, and Miami Dade College in Miami, FL.
She teaches Organic and General Chemistry courses included in the career curricula of Biology, Chemistry and Engineering studies and have extensive experience in the organization and planning tasks in a chemistry laboratory. She explains the Organic Chemistry and its diversity in a way that students can understand, making the process of learning as effective, clear and understandable as possible. The Introduction to Research Methods taught by Dr. Pina the last two years in the summer term includes lecture and experiments related with isolation, purification, and characterization of organic compounds.
Dr. Pina has worked also in different lines of research as: Isolation of natural products from endemic Cuban plants, synthesis of furan derivatives from furfuraldehyde, synthesis of pyrrol derivatives from furfuraldehyde, purification of drugs for clinical tests, synthesis of stabilizers for plastics, validation of chemical products used in the Cuban electronic industry, synthesis of furan derivatives as precursors of liquid crystals in collaboration with other countries.
- The 78th Annual Meeting of the FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. Indian River State College, Fr. Pierce, Florida, March 7 – 8, 2014.
- 9th Annual Southeast Cell Science, Undergraduate Research Symposium, May 5th, 2014. (Judge of the oral presentations
- M. Pina, and eight more students . Summer Research Symposium, School of Science, September 2014. Poster presentation: “Study of Ethanol and Aqueous Extracts of Ardisia Crenata and Dioscorea Bulbifera L. Using Thin Layer Chromatography”
- Maria Pina and five more students. Summer Research Symposium, School of Science, September 2015. Poster presentation: “Thin Layer Chromatography and Spectrophotometry: Chlorophyll Analysis in Okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus) and Everglades Tomato (Solanum Pimpinellefium) Plants Grown in Different Light conditions.
- STEM-TRAC Symposium, Miami Dade College, September 26, 2015.
- Poster presentation: Chlorophyll Analysis in Okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus) Plants Grown in Different Light Conditions. Swan Pierre, Maria Pina.
- Poster presentation: Thin Layer Chromatography and Spectrophotometry: Chlorophyll content in Organic Everglades Tomato (Solanum Pimpinellefium) Grown in Different Conditions. Jean Baptiste Harland, Maria Pina.
