IRF announces winner of Student Essay Competition

For Immediate Release: September 15, 2008

The International Road Federation (IRF) announced today that Allison Daniello was selected as the winner of the IRF 2008 Student Essay Competition. Daniello’s essay was selected by a panel of international judges with expertise in the road industry.

Students from nearly two dozen universities participated in this year’s Essay Competition. Each student was asked to submit an essay which addressed a topic under this year’s theme of road safety.

Daniello is a junior mechanical engineering student, and completed her paper, titled “Motorcycle-Guardrail Crashes: How can the risk of severe injury and fatality be reduced?” at Virginia Tech under the supervision of Dr. Clay Gabler.

Daniello will receive her grand prize of $3,000 during the IRF Awards Program being held Jan. 12, 2009 at the Mayflower hotel in Wash., D.C. Dr. Gabler, as the sponsoring professor, will also be awarded the $1,000 prize for professors.

The three $1,000 runners-up to Daniello were Christopher Lindsey from Georgia Tech; Christine Conron and Chiara Silvestri from Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and, Chung-Jen Hsu from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Read Allison Daniello's winning essay

Founded in 1948, the International Road Federation (IRF) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization with members from both the public and private sectors in 90 countries worldwide. IRF promotes the development and maintenance of better, safer roads and road networks throughout the world, using technological solutions and management practices that provide maximum economic and social returns from road investment.