Cristina Alonso has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Basque Country in Spain, an MSc in Industrial Engineering from the University of Navarre in Spain and an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management from Imperial College London in the UK. Her research has focused on the development of topology optimization algorithms. She has worked at: Procter & Gamble (Germany), SENER (Spain), the University of Leeds (UK) and McKinsey & Company (Spain).