In Situ and Laboratory Soil Testing & Interpretation, Soil Stabilization, Soil Reinforcement, Pavement Materials Characterization, Instrumentation and Data Acquisition, Waste Management Study (Recyclable Materials), Constitutive Soil Modeling, Environmental Geotechnics.

Dr Puppala received his bachelor's degree from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India in 1985 and master's degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1987. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1993 from Louisiana State University (LSU). He worked as a research engineer/research associate at Louisiana Transportation Research Center, a joint organization of Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and LSU, during 1993-1996. Dr. Puppala joined as Assistant Professor in Geotechnical Engineering area of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of University of Texas at Arlington in July, 1996.

His research areas of interest are advanced soil testing and interpretation, soil stabilization, soil reinforcement, pavement materials characterization, and waste management studies. He has published several articles in ASCE Geotechnical Journal, ASTM Soil Testing Journal, ASTM Special Technical Publications, Transportation Research Board Records, International Conferences on Soil Mechanic Related Topics, In Situ Testing Proceedings, ASCE conferences. He is a member of ASCE bituminous materials committee, TRB Bridges and Foundation's committee, and TRB Soils and Rock Instrumentation committee. He is a licensed civil engineer in the state of Louisiana and a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society.