Serena Gildea

Serena graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast with a Masters degree in Structural Engineering with Architecture in 2010 and won the ‘McMullen Prize for Structural Engineering with Architectural Design’, in her final year, for having the best overall performance in Architectural Design.

She moved to New Zealand in 2012 following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence of 2010-2011 that caused the immediate collapse of hundreds of buildings and devastation to the City of Christchurch. She gained a great appreciation for seismic design and dynamic loading during her three-year stint and experienced numerous aftershocks while completing hundreds of structural assessments of properties damaged by the earthquakes.

Serena moved to London in February 2016 where she joined Design ID and has since taken the lead on numerous projects in residential and commercial fields for both traditional and modular designs. She moved to Belfast in October 2020 through an internal transfer and is currently focusing her work on Conservation Engineering following a successful application for one of the prestigious Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (S.P.A.B) Scholarships in 2022.

Serena achieved Chartered status with Engineers Ireland in the Summer of 2017 and became Chartered with the Institution of Structural Engineers in the Autumn of 2020.

She has a great interest in promoting Women in Engineering and is an active member of Engineers Ireland and currently Vice-Chair of the Northern Region Engineer’s Ireland Committee.