Antonio Ruiz Joins UMD Center for Risk and Reliability

Antonio is the Technical Project Manager for the Center for Risk and Reliability in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UMD. Prior to joining UMD, he served 15 years at the U.S. Department of Energy as the program manager of the Hydrogen Safety Program and as technology manager for energy efficiency and international activities. Antonio led private-public partnership programs to accelerate the development of standardization and regulatory requirements for the commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. He also managed International Initiatives with the governments of India and China, served as the U.S. Representative in the Energy Working Group of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and later stationed in Tokyo, Japan as senior advisor to the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). More recently, Antonio led the standardization and industry collaboration programs at Nikola Motor Company to inform national policies and establish international partnerships to advance the global deployment of heavy-duty fuel cell electric trucks and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. Antonio received a B.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the California State University in Sacramento, California.