The Ralston Young Trenchless Achievement Award applauds savvy members under 36 who have demonstrated excellence early in their career by making valuable contributions to the trenchless technology industry, achieving noteworthy professional success, and actively participating in NASTT or its regional or student chapters. With their talent and ability, these impressive people are the future of trenchless.
Dr. Kalyan Piratla is the Liles Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Clemson University. He received his Bachelors and Master’s degrees in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, India in 2008. He later received his Ph.D. in Construction Management from Arizona State University in 2012 where he was a NASTT student member. Dr. Piratla’s research interests are in the area of design, construction and maintenance of buried pipeline systems. He secured more than $1.7 million of external funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation, South Carolina Department of Transportation, and South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium to carry out research at Clemson University.
His valuable research contributions are primarily in the areas of pipeline leakage detection, sustainable and resilient water infrastructure management. He published more than 55 peer-reviewed research papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings. He made several presentations at national and international conferences including the NASTT No-Dig Show, ISTT No-Dig Show, ASCE Pipelines and ICPTT conferences. He was recognized with the ASCE’s 2015 Arthur M. Wellington Prize for co-authoring a journal paper on sustainability indices for utility construction projects. He teaches “underground construction methods,” “construction estimating,” and “Building Information Modeling” courses to both undergraduate and graduate students at Clemson University.
As a NASTT volunteer, Dr. Piratla served as a moderator, track leader and program committee member for several NASTT No-Dig conferences and other technical conferences. Additionally, he served as a reviewer for several scientific journals and research panels at the National Science Foundation. In 2018, he was presented with the S. E. Liles, Jr. Distinguished Professorship Award given by Clemson University. He currently serves on the editorial board for the ASCE Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice. As the advisor for the NASTT student chapter at Clemson University, he promotes education and outreach activities associated with trenchless construction methods.
Kalyan will be honored during the Gala awards Dinner at the 2020 No-Dig Show in Denver on April 7.
