Danielli de Melo Moura, PhD candidate in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, received an award for best poster in the civil engineering track at the 53rd U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (ARMA 2019) held in New York City in June 2019. Co-authored by Antonio Bobet, Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Professor in Civil Engineering, the work is titled, "Influence of Flaw Geometry on Crack Coalescence across a Frictional Interface in a Rock Model Material."

Danielli is a PhD candidate in geotechnical engineering with an interest in contributing to a deeper understanding of rock fracture mechanics. During her PhD research, she has investigated the effects of an interface on the fracturing mechanisms (i.e. crack initiation, propagation and coalescence) in layered rock-model materials. She currently holds a position at Purdue as Graduate Research Assistant under the supervision of Professor Antonio Bobet.

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Universidade de Pernambuco in Brazil, Danielli worked for the Brazilian government for three years where she supervised both construction and maintenance of earth-filled and concrete dams in the state of Pernambuco. In 2014, she was granted the Science without Borders scholarship to fund her graduate studies at Purdue University. Danielli obtained her Master’s degree in civil engineering from Purdue in 2017.