Anand J. Puppala, Ph.D., P.E., F.ICE, Dist.M.ASCE, the A.P. Wiley & Florence Chair professor of Zachry Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been honored with inclusion by ASCE in its 2024 class of distinguished members.
The recognition is for his outstanding contributions in reducing damages of infrastructure built on problematic soils and enhancing resilience of floor control structures via sustainable ground improvement methods, site characterization, risk assessments, and integration of innovative data-driven technologies for transportation infrastructure monitoring and asset management.
Puppala has spearheaded advancements on such topics as pavements stability using recycled materials; embankment and levee slope failures repair; and instrumentation and monitoring of infrastructure using uncrewed aerial vehicle and asset management. He “lives and breathes” innovation in his research, which has practical engineering design and construction applications especially in geotechnics.
His groundbreaking stabilization research has expanded to recycle aggregates, with widespread adoption by researchers worldwide. Of note is the research conducted in collaboration with the city of Arlington, Texas, which resulted in specifications for treating expansive subsoils, reducing pavement repair costs, and enhancing road quality. These specifications were successfully implemented, resulting in substantial savings in maintenance costs.
Since 2015, Puppala has served as director of the highly successful National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Center site, in the Center for the Integration of Composites into Civil Infrastructure at TAMU. There he helps introduce sustainability aspects of the research studies performed in the infrastructure field. Recently, Puppala secured three university transportation centers from TAMU. He is also director of Center for Infrastructure Renewal.
Puppala’s mentorship in academia has been of crucial importance in shaping the careers of 43 doctoral and 53 master’s degree students, many of whom have become leaders in education and the engineering profession.
His scholarly research record includes over 540 publications, among them 220-plus journal articles, and he has edited seven special publications. Many best-paper honors are attached to his writings, including the 2023 R.M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Journal and the 2024 J. James R. Croes Medal from ASCE. His papers have been nominated for ASCE’s Norman and Middlebrooks awards, and he is on the editorial board of several of the Society’s journals.
Puppala is a past-chair of the Soil Mechanics section (AFS00) of the Transportation Research Board. He also chaired the ASCE Geo-Institute committee Engineering Geology and Site Characterization and TRB’s committee Soil and Rock Instrumentation. He is the current chair of ISSMGE’s Technical Committee 307 on Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering. In 2022 Puppala joined the Geo-Institute's Board of Governors.
He has given keynote and invited talks all over the world, including a prestigious ASCE GI Peck Talk at the 2020 GeoCongress in Minneapolis.
