He was born in El Paso, Texas, and lived there until age 8 and then moved to Hastings, Minnesota.
He worked for two years at the United States Naval Research Laboratory on fiber optic sensors and then went to graduate school to study mathematics.
[2] Colliander is a collaborator with Markus Keel, Gigliola Staffilani, Hideo Takaoka, and Terence Tao, forming a group known as the "I-team".
Colliander, with colleagues from PIMS, created Syzygy, a project that provides interactive computing for students and teachers at universities across Canada.
Colliander, with colleagues from PIMS and Cybera, created Callysto, a project designed to improve computational thinking for students and teachers in grades 5-12.