Ryan began his academic career by obtaining a bachelor’s in psychology from Marist College and then a master’s in social psychology from New York University. His research focused on the internet and its impact on conforming through anonymity. After completing his graduate studies, he backpacked Australia for a year and returned home where he worked for a marketing agency. Eventually, he began to shift back to academia after discovering that he didn’t enjoy the 9-5 office environment. Now he is working towards a PhD in computer science at The University of British Columbia where he focuses on data visualization. This shift in research interest was inspired by a trip to the museum where he saw an installation that used visualized data to explain a series of complex topics in a digestible manner. He is hoping to create similar visualizations as a means to further explain our complicated world as well as communicate interesting research streams to non-experts.
