Ryan graduated with an M.S. in 2016 and is now working on his PhD at Oregon State University. Ryan's research interests are in the use of population demography to answer both applied and basic ecological questions in relation to the conservation of terrestrial vertebrates. He had worked with northern spotted owls - among other species - for several years prior to joining the lab. He has been particularly interested in the conservation concerns posed for spotted owls stemming from the arrival of barred owls to the west coast of North America, and did fieldwork with the first scientific experiment to investigate if lethal barred owl removal could have a positive impact for spotted owl demography. For his master's thesis he built an individual based spatially explicit population model to investigate whether the size and distribution of barred owl removal areas has an impact on removal efficacy and efficiency. Ryan was awarded a NSF GRFP while working with the lab and is now using it to conduct his PhD reasearch at Oregon State.