Employee Spotlight: Ryan Furey

Meet ORAU Employee Ryan Furey. Ryan is an ORAU contractor working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development, in Narragansett, RI, as a social science researcher.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with a team of social scientists who are using novel data sources to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of environmental issues. Traditionally, social scientists have been limited to traditional means of data-gathering and analysis, which takes considerable time and resources. But the modern world is awash with new forms of information, like data from mobile phone applications and remote sensing. The social science team here has been attempting to use these forms of data to better understand how people behave around environmental resources, and I have been lucky to contribute to the work.”

Background

A Florida native, he studied economics at Harvard University. Most of his coursework focused on developing economies and natural resource economics. Prior to the EPA, Ryan had worked for a non-profit in Tanzania, as a photographer for a travel guide, and as the director of research for an early stage startup. If you can’t find him in the office, he is probably out surfing! Ryan would like his future work to address environmental issues in resource constrained parts of the world.