Daniel B. Lopes da Silva earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering (IE) from Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil, in 2016. He then earned master’s degrees in IE from Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, in 2019, and from the University of Arkansas in 2021. Now a PhD candidate in I E at Clemson University, he is applying the Operations Research (OR) for Social Good model as he works with a transdisciplinary team investigating network interdiction models to effectively disrupt human trafficking networks. This collective, comprised of students and faculty from four universities, also includes a survivor-centered advisory group. He is president of Clemson’s student chapter of INFORMS, in which he has created IE-centric activities for local elementary STEM nights, organized welcome mixers for new PhD students, and interviewed a variety of researchers for the podcast series, “Optimality Gap.” In a future faculty position, he appreciates that he will have the opportunity and responsibility of conducting research projects that can improve the quality of life for many people and reduce their suffering. Coming from an underserved rural community in one of the poorest states in Brazil, da Silva has experienced the positive transformation of an engineering education. He plans to give back by initiating outreach activities and events and by training and mentoring students to ensure they have the technical skills necessary to approach problems with holistic and comprehensive perspectives.

Research Interests

Operations Research, Network Optimization and Interdiction, Bi-level Programming, Human-trafficking disruption