Born in Buffalo, New York, Ruff, received his first professional Bachelors of Architecture degree from Cornell University (1992) and a Masters of Architecture II from Cornell University (1995). He has taught at Syracuse University and Hampton University, as an Assistant Professor and the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Cornell University as a Lecturer. Scott Ruff is the principal of RuffWorks Studio, a research and design studio specializing in culturally informed projects and community engagement. RuffWorks Studio’s focus is on design methods that embrace social responsibility as the studio works with clients to reach their goals for every project. Ruff’s work fuses handcraft and contemporary methods of construction with awareness to the working of materials that ties it to a specific culture, environment, or manufacturing process.