Andrea Lira Loarca was awarded her PhD (Cum Laude) on July 2019 at the University of Granada, Spain. Her PhD was done within a co-tutelle agreement between the University of Granada, Spain and University of Parma, Italy under the supervision of Profs. Asunción Baquerizo and Sandro Longo. Her PhD thesis studied the hydrodynamics of a WEC (wave energy converter) under the combined forcing of swell and sea waves. It combined the analytical study of wave-structure interaction of regular and irregular swell waves with the experimental works of this type of structures under the influence of local sea waves in combination with swell. It also involved the use of Monte Carlo techniques for longterm time series simulation of maritime variables for its application to the analytical model and experimental results. During her PhD, she did a 1-year research stay at the University of Parma to focus on the post-processing of the experimental data within her thesis and analysis of results. 

In addition to her PhD work, she collaborated in different research projects of the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Research Group of the Andalusian Institute for Earth System Research, such as project  AQUACLEW (Advancing QUAlity of CLimate services for European Water), funded by the European Union. Within this project, she studied the  changes in physical processes such as sea waves, fluvial discharges and sediment transport, that interact and control the dynamics of coastal areas as well as the integrity of the physical environment and ecologic condition under extreme events. The analysis was done under different climate change and sea level rise scenarios in order to develop risk adaptation strategies. After her PhD, she remained at the University of Granada for 1-year postdoctoral position and now is currently a postdoc at the University of Genova, Italy working in the framework of the European research project Interreg Italy France Maritime France SICOMAR+, focusing on the analysis of long- term trends of wave climate in the upper Tyrrhenian Sea under climate change scenarios. 

In 2022, she received the 2018-19 Extraordinary Doctoral Award from the Consejo de Gobierno de la Universidad de Granada.