Dr. Almudena Majano Majano

Almudena is Associate Professor at ETS Architecture (ETSAM) of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) in the Department of Building Structures and Physics, where is teaching for more than 10 years different subjects on Building Structures. She coordinates the Timber structures course of the Master in Building Structures and the course on Digital Design and Fabrication of Timber Structures. She is also invited lecturer in different national and international Masters. Almudena is member of the Timber Construction Research Group (UPM) and organizer of the Timber Construction course promoted by the group. She is currently head of the Laboratory of Building Structures at ETSAM and Coordinator of the PhD Program 03E9 in Building Structures of UPM.

She studied Architecture at the Technical University of Madrid (MScArch 2005). After that, she began her research career holding a research fellowship within the European R&D project Holiwood. In 2015 she completed her PhD with the dissertation titled Thermally treated hardwood for structural use, which received International PhD Mention, Cum Laude, and was honoured with the UPM Extraordinary PhD award.

She has participated as a researcher in other European and national R&D Projects from competitive calls related to the structural use of timber and its application to sustainable construction, with a strong research activity in the field of material characterization of both mechanical, fracture, and rheological properties, the mechanical behaviour ofconnections, the development of new structural timber products, and the design of structural systems, with special emphasis in recent years on timber gridshells. Within the framework of these projects, she was involved as a collaborator in the design of the PEMADE gridshell and the Impulso Verde building. She is currently Principal Researcher of the R&D project Gridadigtion funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, which integrates structural efficiency and material economy concepts, advanced digital manufacturing, and the development of a high-performance timber product into new construction systems for gridshells.

Almudena has always considered internationalization as one of the key aspects for strengthening the production of scientific knowledge and collaborations. In this sense, she has carried out several short-term research stays in European Institutions of reference in the timber engineering field: EMPA Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Switzerland), Laboratory of Wood Technology of Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), The University of Edinburgh (UK), and NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal). She has also participated regularly in international congresses of relevance with more than 20 contributions, and has received several grants from the European Commission Research & Innovation through Cost Actions for training activities on structural timber in different European Universities.

Almudena is co-author of numerous publications in top specialty international peer-reviewed journals and co-author of a patent with examination. She has also performed regular reviewing work of manuscripts and has participated as Invited Editor of two Special issues of peer-reviewed journals: Characterization of Bio-Based Materials and Structures in Materials journal and Gridshells: From Materials to Structures in Applied Sciences journal. Her research activity is complemented with the supervision of various PhD Thesis, all of them based on the structural use of wood.

Other relevant merits related to scientific management is the participation as member of two Technical Committees for Standardisation on Timber Structures: CEN 140/SC 05 and CEN 056/SC 06.

Her current interests & responsibilities focus on research that promotes the bioeconomy and sustainable construction, through the development of wood-based products and structural systems using species that produce added value to the country’s forest areas.