Dr. Samuel T. Ariaratnam is a Professor and Sunstate Chair of Construction Management & Engineering at Arizona State University with over 25 years of experience in trenchless pipeline engineering research and education. He graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1989 and received a Master’s degree in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has published over 350 technical papers and reports and is a co-holder of five patents. Dr. Ariaratnam has received numerous awards including the 2012 North American Trenchless Technology Person of the Year. Additionally, he has received recognition from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), where he received the John O. Bickel Award, Arthur M. Wellington Prize, Pipeline Division Award of Excellent, and the Stephen D. Bechtel Pipeline Engineering Award and was elected Fellow in 2015. He was elected Distinguished Member, ASCE’s highest honor, in 2022. Dr. Ariaratnam served as Chairman of the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) from 2010-2013, received the prestigious ISTT Gold Medal in 2019 and was elected as a Fellow in 2021. He was elected Fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) in 2022. Dr. Ariaratnam currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Utility Engineering and Survey Institute (UESI) of ASCE. Dr. Ariaratnam was elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2018, the U.S. National Academy of Construction in 2019, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2023. In 2022, Dr. Ariaratnam was appointed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to serve a on the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Sam teaches our Trenchless Technology New Installations 101 Short Course, Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) Course and our Pipe Bursting Course.