Dr. Ruiz taught in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) for over 4 decades. He served as Chair of the Department from 1980-2000.

He was the first faculty member to win all three of the major UNCA teaching awards: the 1995 UNCA Distinguished Teacher Award, the 1997 UNCA Distinguished Teacher Award in the Natural Sciences, and the 2004 UNC Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He was also the 2009-2010 Ruth and Leon Feldman Professor for Scholarship and Service and received the 2017 Scholarly and Creative Achievement Award for publishing the most papers over a five-year period.

Besides being a physicist, he is a pianist, composer, and software developer. His three piano concertos have been performed by the Winston-Salem Symphony and his innovative work with online e-texts was featured as a top story in science and technology on CNN in 2002.

His personal YouTube Channel DoctorPhys with over 450 videos, 9,500 subscribers, and 1.7 million views. The YouTube videos range from demonstrations for the general student to advanced courses for physics majors.

He has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Maryland and has taught in the fields of physics, astronomy, engineering, computer science, and team-taught one of the required core humanities courses at UNCA. He is also a pianist, composer, and software developer. His three piano concertos have been performed by the Winston-Salem Symphony and his innovative work with online e-texts was featured as a top story in science and technology on CNN in 2002.

Before starting RuizAbility, Frances spent 15 years in a wide range of software engineering roles from local city government to quickly scaling startups, and mentoring junior engineers. She also worked for two years in the Computer Science Department at Swarthmore College, running the department peer mentoring program, assisting professors in class and lab, running evening study sessions, and providing 1-on-1 tutoring.

Frances is actively continuing her education in effective teaching for all different kinds of learners (such as students with learning differences like dysgraphia and dyslexia and neurodiversity such as autism and ADHD).

In her free time, Frances enjoys studying Chinese internal martial arts, working on independent software projects, and homeschooling her two children. She has a BA degree from Carnegie Mellon in Creative Writing with an Additional Major in Spanish.

Additional Certifications

The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education Comprehensive Orton-Gillingham Plus Virtual (30 hours)