Maria Betânia de Oliveira is a Professor in the Department of Structures, School of Architecture & Urbanism, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.

She studied Civil Engineering at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU) (1991), obtained a Master of Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) (1995) and a PhD in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering) from USP (2001). She has been a Professor at UFRJ since 2012.

Her research interests focus on the design of tensile structures (balancing form and structure) and the design of membrane structures (surface tensile structural elements).

She has held positions in engineering at Faculdade do Noroeste de Minas (FINOM), Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (FAAP), Universidade do Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP), Universidade São Marcos (USM), and Universidade de Uberaba (UNIUBE).