Ryan's major research interests focus on understanding some of the most extreme objects in astronomy (neutron stars, fast radio bursts, and black holes) and using them to answer fundamental questions about the Universe. He studies these objects using the most powerful telescopes in the world.

Ryan co-leads the Commensal Real-time Fast Transients Collaboration which uses the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Telescope to find and study fast radio bursts. He is also leading the effort to search for nanohertz frequency gravitational waves with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa as part of the MeerTime project.

Grants Awarded
The Variability of the Crab Pulsar: A Joint Radio Gamma-Ray Study.
Principal investigator of 500 hr of simultaneous observations at gamma-ray and radio wavelengths.
NASA Guest Investigator Grant, $59,700 to Ryan Shannon.
Searching for Debris Disks around Variable Pulsars.
Principal investigator of 7 hours of observation using the mid-infrared camera IRAC on Spitzer Space Telescope.
NASA Guest Investigator Grant, $28,000 to Ryan Shannon.