After serving as a postdoctoral associate and then as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellow at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Colón joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1997. He was promoted to associate professor in 2004. Colón’s many honors and awards include the 2010 American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences, election as a fellow of the AAAS in 2007, the Rensselaer Early Career Award in 2002, a NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2001, a NSF faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 2000, a Research Corporation Innovation Award in 1999. a American Heart Association Scientist Development Award in 1998, and a New Faculty Award from the Camille And Henry Dreyfus Foundation in 1997.