Rios is an R&D staff scientist in the Deposition Sciences and Technology Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He joined ORNL in 2010 as an Alvin Weinberg Fellow. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Florida. Rios is an expert in materials processing in magnetic fields, and is responsible for the design and implementation of the extensive thermo-magnetic processing capabilities in the Material Science and Technology Division and integration of technologies within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) manufacturing demonstration facility.

Prior to employment at ORNL, he conducted research at NASA as well as at the university. As an undergraduate, Rios was an intern at the Technical University of Kiel, where he worked on building photonic structures using electrochemical processing.