Dr. Maria Papanikou holds a Ph.D. in Aviation Safety from the University of Greenwich focusing on systemic – safety studies through interdisciplinary research. She holds a MSc on Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a BSc in Management Science, the State University of New York (SUNY), USA. Her interdisciplinary background is at the core of her projects and her research interests. Before joining the Aviation Academy as Associate Professor of Safety and Human Factors, Maria worked in the United Kingdom both as flight crew trainer, and as a researcher and academic. Maria worked at the University of Greenwich until 2018, where she was teaching, researching, and directing programmes and international partnerships in-house and overseas. Following her departure from London, Maria joined the research team of the Medical School at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. At AUTh Maria worked on pilot mental health and participated in as well as coordinated research bids for projects on aviation human factors. Maria serves as organising and scientific committee in conferences internationally. Maria also serves as a consultant for the setting up of the Safety Management Systems in airlines. She sits in and has chaired Scientific Advisory Boards on Systems Interactions and Safety Management. Maria’s current projects focus on pilot fatigue and mental health as well as knowledge and data management, focusing on learning from what works well.