Timothy A. Ryan

Timothy A. Ryan is a Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering/Cornell Tri-Institutional Professor in the department of Biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a Senior Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus. Ryan’s laboratory is interested in the molecular basis of synaptic function, the essential point of communication between neurons. Ryan and his colleagues focus on presynaptic biology, in which neurotransmitter-containing synaptic vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane at the synapse in response to electrical stimulation. 

He received his PhD in Physics at Cornell University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford University. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a two-time recipient of the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, a recipient of the NINDS Javits Award and a recipient of the Siegel Family Award for Outstanding Biomedical Research. He has served on advisory boards, including the Board of Scientific Councilors of NINDS. He currently serves on the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council.