Eric J. Ruggiero received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 from the Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures as a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow.  Upon graduation, Eric started his industrial research career at GE Aerospace Research in Niskayuna, New York. From 2011 through 2014, he served as Lab Manager for the Turbine Heat Transfer Technologies Laboratory, where he led global research teams on the innovation, design, test, and validation of advanced cooling schemes for gas turbines.  In 2014, Eric moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join the Sustaining Commercial Thermal Systems Design team at GE Aerospace within Services Engineering.  In this role, he had responsibility for the hot gas path thermal design of GE Aerospace’s commercial aviation fleet.  Eric then moved to Edison Works in 2017 to join the Aero & Thermal Technologies design team.  Most recently, Eric was promoted to lead the Advanced Programs engineering section in 2022 where he is blessed to serve GE Aerospace customers through next generation exhaust system design and strategic technology development that enables differentiated capabilities for the US and its allies.  Eric is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.