Ryan was raised and attended high school in Vancouver; after a short interlude at Mount Allison University to complete first year, he transferred to the University of British Columbia, where he is currently pursuing a Combined Honours in Physics and Chemistry. In the past, he has volunteered in the research group of Prof. Christopher Overall at UBC, and has worked in the research groups of Prof. Andrew Grant at Mount Allison, developing cellulose-derived polymers, and of Prof. Hugh Kim at UBC, elucidating platelet-cell signalling pathways. He is currently working with the Cosa Group by way of the Reactive Intermediate Student Exchange (RISE) program, where he is synthesizing and imaging with electrophilic BODIPY-derived fluorogenic probes