My name is Ryan Walker. I am an astrophotographer, astronomer, and life-long student.
I am currently a senior double majoring in Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Interdisciplinary Physics at the University of Michigan. I have been an amateur astrophotographer since early 2020 when I bought my first DSLR camera and got started with taking my own pictures of the Universe. I am also a musician, having played guitar since 2013 and picked up a few other instruments since then. In my freetime, I enjoy reading, coding, astrophotography (weather permitting), hiking, producing music, and spending time with friends.
I have done research in a variety of areas including high energy astrophysics, strong gravitational lensing, asteroid orbital stability, solar imaging, and photometric redshifts.
Currently, I am finishing up a strong gravitational lensing project with two co-author papers on the way. I am also working on a solar project, for which I will be imaging the total
solar eclipse on April 8th, as well as mentoring a student in the detection of exoplanet transits using amateur astrophotography equipment. With strong gravitational lensing, I have
learned to model cosmic lenses, which has aided in the analysis of high-redshift lensed galaxies, as well as studying the evolution of galaxy clusters and their dark matter halos.
Click here for more details about my lensing research.
All of the astronomy pictures on this site are taken by me (unless otherwise specified)! Below is a gallery of some of my best images. Feel free to ask questions!
Feel free to contact me with any inquires you may have and
I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.
Click here to send me an email.
In case the link doesn't work, my email is astrorya (at) umich (dot) edu.