Ryan Edgington is a third year doctoral student in Temple's department of history where he studies under Andrew C. Isenberg and David Farber. His particular interests are the history of the U.S. West and the North American environment. Ryan's research is now focused on his dissertation tentatively titled "Landscapes of Missilery: Nature, Culture, and the making of White Sands Missile Range." He examines White Sands in an effort to understand the complicated ways in which cold war spaces changed the North American West. At the same time he explores how westerners redefined the meaning of and uses for cold war military-scientific installations.

Ryan is the recipient of a 2006 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation research grant for his work on public history and Philadelphia's natural environment. He also received a grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University for dissertation research over the summer term. During 2005, Ryan was the Allen F. Davis Fellow in Public History in residence at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia.