Maria Odete de Oliveira Meneses is a researcher at the Center for Management Studies in Instituto Superior Técnico (CEG-IST). She is an Industrial and Management Engineer who graduated in December 2019 in IST, Universidade de Lisboa. She developed her master thesis about the optimization of blood inventory management in hospital blood banks. Since February 2020, she is enrolled in the Engineering and Management Ph.D. at IST and is working in a research project named “LAIfeBlood - Artificial Intelligence for Blood Management", which aims to improve the blood supply chain efficiency. She published a research paper in an international journal concerning her main research focus, which is blood supply chain management through mathematical models and processes optimization. During her academic years, she has done several volunteer work, both in Portugal (in associations like Refood and Cruz Vermelha), and abroad (in Associção Filhos do Céu, Brazil).