After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2011, Ryan worked on various research projects with organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. On one project with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization he worked as a project lead in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Ryan is now completing a joint masters degree in International Policy Studies and Public Policy at Stanford University. With continued interest in international energy-economic systems he has done research on electricity interconnections in Mexico, carbon capture and storage in China, and natural gas vehicle deployment in the United States.
Ryan notes that he came UC Berkeley with an interest in politics, economics, and the growing of influence of China in the world. In the Interdisciplinary Studies Field (ISF) major he was able to study these topics through various departmental perspectives. Taking classes in economics, statistics, political economy, and East Asian studies added to the core ISF coursework offering large breadth to his undergraduate studies. He also completed a minor in Mandarin Chinese, studied abroad in Beijing, China, and became highly proficient in Mandarin Chinese. Becoming very interested in the role of energy in the political-economic relationship between the U.S. and China, Ryan completed his honors thesis entitled: China and Global Energy Security: Implications of State Involvement in the Energy Sector of the PRC.
