Wolfgang Backhaus is senior project developer for Public Transport Innovations at Rupprecht Consult and he co-ordinated several EU projects on electric bus research topics over the last years. Current projects are the CIVITAS-ELIPTIC (Electrification of public transport in cities) and EBSF_2 (European Bus System of the Future) projects. Wolfgang is a certified change manager and consults transport authorities on the change towards zero-emission mobility and the integration of electromobility concepts into SUMP (Sustainable Urban Mobility planning) processes. He is involved in several expert groups on electric transport, e.g. steering board member for R&D of the UITP Trolleybus Committee and the Sustainable Transport Forum sub-group on “Alternative Fuels in Cities” from the European Commission.
Wolfgang graduated in geography and sociology at the RWTH Aachen University and finished his Ph.D. on management of large regional Networks. He worked as an EU-consultant at the EU-office of RWTH Aachen University and later, he became head of the research unit "Knowledge Management" at the research institute Centre for Learning and Knowledge Management and Department of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering.