Samuel Ariaratnam is an expert in trenchless technology, which uses surface-monitored, underground excavation tools to replace and install utility lines for oil, natural gas, water, sewer, electrical, and telecommunications without disrupting neighborhoods, roadways, railways, riverbeds.

Ariaratnam has been appointed by United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee, also known as the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee, or GPAC.

GPAC is mandated by federal law and was established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 to review the regulatory initiatives undertaken by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. GPAC members also determine the technical feasibility, reasonableness, cost-effectiveness and practicality of those initiatives.

Ariaratnam is a professor and Beavers-Ames Chair in Heavy Construction in ASU’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. He also serves as Chair of the Construction Engineering Program.