HARVARD
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
 
 
 
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ryan Truby
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Ryan Truby is a postdoctoral fellow in Applied Physics at Harvard University's Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Additionally, he was recently awarded the 2018–2019 class of Schmidt Science Fellows, a first member of the fellows program.

A native of West Texas, Ryan attended The University of Texas at Austin, earning his Bachelors in biomedical engineering with a minor in physics. His undergraduate research focused on developing a collection of optically and magnetically active nanoparticle contrast agents for selectively imaging cancer with several ultrasound-based, molecular imaging techniques. He also conducted research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and Sandia National Laboratory's Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Harvard, Ryan did his dissertation work in Jennifer Lewis' laboratory on 3-D printing of autonomously actuating soft materials for applications in soft robotics and electronics in an IRG3 collaboration with the Whitesides and Wood laboratories.

In addition to his research studies, Ryan has remained an active teacher. At Harvard, he served two semesters as a Teaching Fellow for BE 191 — Introduction to Biomaterials (an undergraduate course at Harvard SEAS that he helped develop with Jennifer Lewis) and helped develop the 3-D printing workshop for middle school girls which has been hosted for several summers by Harvard's Materials Science and Engineering Research Center. He has also worked with the Innovation Institute in Newtonville, Massachusetts, to develop and teach both a week-long 3-D printing camp for middle school students and a semester-long seminar class for high school students on materials science and engineering.