Professional Committees

Prof. Varma is a member of several national level committees drafting codes / specifications for the design of steel, concrete, and composite structures.

He is a voting member of the AISC committee of specifications (COS), which is the pinnacle committee responsible for all the AISC codes / specifications. He is the Chair of Task Committee 8 on Fire Design, and member of Task Committee 5 on Composite Construction. He was the Vice Chair (2007-16) of the ad-hoc subcommittee on modular composite construction for nuclear facilities.

Prof. Varma is also a member and Vice-Chair of the ACI 349 committee for the design of safety-related nuclear facilities. He is a member of the ASME Section III, Div. 2 - Concrete Containment committee (2023 - present) and the chair of the Task Group on Steel-Plate Composite Containment Vessel (SCCV). He is also Chair of the Modernization Workgroup for containment design.

Prof. Varma is voting member of the ASCE 7 main committee of minimum design loads for buildings and other structures, member of the seismic provisions sub-committee, and the Chair of the General Requirements sub-committee of ASCE 7. He is a member of the Building Seismic Safety Council’s (BSSC) Provisions Update Committee (PUC), and the Chair of Issue Team 2 on interfaces between structural components.