Professor Irini Papanicolopulu is British Academy Global Professor of International Law at SOAS University of London and conducts research and teaches in international law and its different branches. She holds a PhD in international law from the University of Milano, and has previously worked at the University of Oxford, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Milano-Bicocca. Irini is a Visiting Professor at Catolica University (Lisbon, Portugal) and St. Gallen University (Switzerland). She is the author of two monographs, including International Law and the Protection of People at Sea (OUP 2018), has authored numerous articles and book chapters and has edited several collective volumes, including the award-winning Gender and the Law of the Sea (Brill 2019). She is the Chair of the ILA Committee on Protection of People at Sea and a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Interest Group on the Law of the Sea of the European Society of International Law. She has been a Legal Expert for UNEP/MAP – Secretariat of the Barcelona Convention. She has also been a member of the Italian delegation in negotiations concerning the Law of the Sea and occasionally advises states, international organisations, civil society organisations and business actors on issues of environmental law, international law, the law of the sea, and human rights law.