Ryan is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Joyce Besheer and was awarded a two-year NIH F31 Research Fellowship. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary and afterward, worked as a post-bac in the Laboratory of Neuroimaging at NIAAA before starting at UNC for graduate school. His project examines the effects of predator odor stress exposure on interoceptive sensitivity to alcohol.