Alex Ryan

Alex Ryan is from Bloomfield, New Jersey, adjacent to both Newark and Montclair, and a suburb of New York City. He attends RPI as an undergraduate studying Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and is an Air Force ROTC Cadet due to commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in May 2024. He is also pursuing a minor in Astrobiology. It is this minor that brings him to Prof. Shelley's lab, where he is designing, assembling, and testing a new apparatus known as SPLASHO (Simulated Primitive Liquid And Surface Hydrochemical Oceanographer) to accurately recreate the surface conditions of the prebiotic earth and other select alien environments with high fidelity and control in a laboratory setting. SPLASHO seeks to specifically enable the emulation of prebiotic conditions at scales and concentrations which would have occurred on the prebiotic earth.