Dr. Michaela Gkantou is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Structural Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), which she joined in 2018. She obtained a 5-year diploma in Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2012, an MSc in the Design of Steel Structures at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, in 2013, and a PhD on the nonlinear response of high strength steel structures at the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2017.  Her main research interests are sustainable structural materials and design procedures; experimental structural testing; finite element modelling; aluminum, high-strength steel, stainless steel, and composite structures.