Ryan completed his B.Sc. in Psychology at Michigan State University (2022) with a minor in Cognitive Science and later earned a M.Sc. in Clinical and Developmental Psychopathology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2025). During his master’s degree, Ryan interned with the Willuhn Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, gaining experience in neuromodulation, fiber photometry, and cognitive-affective processes in rodent models. He later carried out his master’s thesis in the E-Motion Lab, where he worked under Álvaro Sánchez-López and Óscar Martín García, investigating the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive biases in affective disorders.

Ryan is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Clinical Psychology at UCM. His current research interests lie in the mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders, particularly cognitive biases of attention and interpretation, and the potential use of tDCS to modulate these processes. His doctoral project focuses on identifying neural correlates of cognitive bias in anxiety and optimizing stimulation protocols to enhance psychological interventions.