Dr Ryan Keogh is a Thai-Irish Biophysicist, adventurer, and creative. His drive to find the truly weird and wonderful things in this world inspires the stories that he writes. Having worked in a variety of fields (from research to shipbuilding), he draws upon his analytical mind and life experiences to fuel his writing. Before moving to the United Kingdom, Ryan lived in the Middle East. This experience helped shape a cultural understanding in his formative years. Here, he met people from all corners of the globe, inspiring a zest for travel that continues to this day. With over 50 countries under his belt, Dr Keogh strives to absorb and understand all cultures from one side of the world to the other. Growing up, Ryan was surrounded by languages such as Arabic, Urdu, Afrikaans, and beyond – fueling a passion for language learning and sharing information that directly translated to learning cultures and histories of other countries. Attempts to understand his own ancestry have led to introspection on the importance of cultural roots and knowing our own cultural histories. This yearning for self-discovery parallels his yearning for scientific discovery through research.

A devout academic, Ryan’s passion for the physical sciences during his adolescence kick-started his career as a scientist, having obtained a degree in Astrophysics (BSc Hons) and finally his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Edinburgh. During his post as a doctoral researcher, he published and contributed to several peer-reviewed articles and presented conference proceedings across Europe and the USA. “What is life?” and more specifically, “what exactly can life do?”, are exactly the types of questions that science should be able to answer. These are the questions that Ryan dedicates his life to answering. His previous body of work focuses on mathematical modelling, specifically in the context of bacterial swarms. However, his specific interests lie in the magic world of fungi and bacteria, he believes that understanding Biology and its limitations is some of the most important work to be done. Whether it’s understanding the role fungal life might play in shaping our future, how humankind might exist outside of Earth, or even predicting what creatures might exist past our solar system – the answers all lie in science. Dr Keogh aspires to make the answers to these questions, or at least our current best guesses, easily accessible to the general public.

This blend of culture and science culminates in what Dr Keogh wants to understand most – understanding life and how it operates.