Dr. Piero Caridis received his education in Greece and attended the universities of Glasgow and London (UCL) where he studied naval architecture at an undergraduate and a postgraduate level. After his studies he was trained and subsequently assumed the responsibilities of a marine superintendent in a shipping company in Piraeus, Greece. He was subsequently employed by Glasgow University and carried out research which led to his PhD degree in nonlinear structural mechanics. Dr Caridis then joined the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens where he taught courses in ship strength and inspection, repair and maintenance of ship structures for thirty years. His research interests included nonlinear behaviour of ship structures, marine accident analysis and ship repair and maintenance. He has been a member of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC) committees since 1991. Dr Caridis retired from NTUA in 2016 following which he taught a number of courses at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland during the period 2017-19. From 2022 onwards he has been contributing to online teaching courses on ship and submarine structures.