Vanessa Katsardi joined the research group of the Fluid Mechanics section at Imperial College to undertake a PhD in October 2002.
She knew she wanted to do a PhD ever since her first year of her undergraduate studies in Greece. Therefore, after completing her MEng in Civil Engineering and MSc in Hydraulic Engineering at the Democritus University of Thrace, in Greece, she made the big step into Imperial; “…the best decision of my professional life”, as she says.
For her PhD studies, she worked on the propagation of nonlinear waves in shallow water depths and her work was both numerical and experimental under the supervision of Professor Chris Swan. “The amazing laboratory facilities were brand new and the academic level was at its best ever” she recalls. During her studies at Imperial she also came into acquaintance and worked together with key people from the industry and the academia getting the chance to be inspired and to acquire professional skills for the future. “My supervisor has been a true mentor who shaped my academic personality and showed me new paths to the field of Ocean Engineering. The research group I joined was working as an unbreakable team! We were enjoying our long hours at the lab, performing state-of-the-art work, sharing our thoughts, worries and agonies and having an amazing time all together. No wonder why, the members of that research group are the key people in the industry and academia today”. Vanessa also undertook a wide range of teaching activities during her PhD studies and on more than one occasion she was singled out for particular praise during end of year review sessions between the students and the Head of Department.
After finishing her PhD, in November 2006, she joined the group as a Research Associate extending her research interests in wave-structure interactions, taking part in joint industry projects and EU-funded research projects. In August 2007, she returned to Athens following the academic root. She worked as an adjunct professor in various academic institutions in Greece teaching relative courses in undergraduate and postgraduate level and also doing a post-doctorate in National Technical University of Athens. In 2011 she was elected Lecturer of Coastal Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Thessaly located in Volos, Greece. Today she is an Assistant Professor of Coastal and Ocean Engineering in the same department; teaching all the relevant subjects, supervising numerous undergraduate, postgraduate theses and PhDs, keeping her research interests in close relation with her original work at Imperial College. Indeed, the latter involve among others, the design of offshore oil and gas platforms, offshore wind energy platforms and wave energy converters along with the propagation of extreme waves in deep and shallow water.
Not surprisingly, Vanessa has kept close collaboration with the Fluid Mechanics group and Prof. Chris Swan. She has performed laboratory work and has been joining in research projects for the group many times. “I always enjoy coming back to the lab and sharing my research interests with the new and old members of the team. After all, it is hardly exaggerating to say that Imperial is and always will be my home”.