J. Carlos Santamarina is Professor and Clough Chair at the Georgia Institute of Technology (United States). He earned his degrees from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), the University of Maryland and Purdue University (United States) and has held academic appointments at NYU-Poly (United States), the University of Waterloo (Canada), KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and Georgia Tech. His research integrates experimental and numerical approaches to investigate complex phenomena in energy geotechnics. A frequent invited speaker, Santamarina has delivered many of the field’s landmark lectures and has received numerous international honors and awards.Andrea Muñoz-Ibáñez is a Ramón y Cajal Fellow at the Universidade da Coruña (Spain) and a former Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. She earned her Ph.D. from the same university and has held postdoctoral positions at the Universidade de Vigo (Spain), KAUST (Saudi Arabia) and Georgia Tech. Her experimentation-centered research integrates experimental and numerical approaches to explore materials and coupled multiphysics processes under extreme conditions. Supported by national and international funding agencies, she brings perspectives rooted in the current realities and cultural trends shaping the next generation of researchers.