Varvara Zania received her Diploma degree in Civil Engineering, and her Masters degree in Design and construction of underground structures, from the National Technical University of Athens. She pursued her PhD degree at the Technical University of Crete, where her research interests focused on the seismic distress of waste landfills. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), she has been investigating the soil response to train induced vibrations and the lateral loading behaviour of large diameter rigid piles. Dr. Zania was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Section of Geotechnics and Geology at DTU in 2012. She has been involved in teaching of postgraduate courses (Seismic and Wind Engineering, and Advanced Geotechnical Engineering). Her main research interests include soil – pile interaction, seismic slope stability, and dynamic soil response.