Pantea Matinrad born and raised in Tehran, Iran. During her childhood the destructive 2003 Bam earthquake happened that killed at least 34,000. As the result of seeing the effect of that deadly earthquake, she became interested in structures and how they can be designed to resist natural hazards like seismic events. She moved to United States in 2013 to start school in civil engineering and later specialized in structural engineering- seismic design for grad school and practice. Her research area includes probabilistic performance based seismic design, structural optimization algorithms and finite element analysis and modeling. Pantea’s design experiences include multi-family residentials of steel, concrete and wood, Lateral resisting systems for mid-rises and high rises, retails, and hotels. On her spare time, Pantea enjoys hiking, skiing and spending time with her dog Chichi.