Seher Suendam Arici is a research assistant at the Department of Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering, Istanbul Technical University (ITU). She graduated with honors in Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering from Piri Reis University in 2015 and also holds a bachelor’s degree in International Trade and Logistics Management and an MBA in Supply Chain Management and Logistics. With professional experience as an oceangoing officer on petrochemical tankers, she completed her MSc at ITU in 2021 with a thesis on ship routing optimization and is currently pursuing her PhD on safety optimization, focusing on the optimal placement of safety equipment on ships. She is also conducting part of her doctoral research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her research interests include maritime safety, human error prediction, risk assessment, and optimization modeling.