Ryan Penney

Ryan (he/him) is a part-time researcher at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, assisting with the Creating a Digital Revolution for Ocean Stewardship project and a current PhD student in the department of Anthropology. Prior to Stanford, Ryan received a B.S. and M.S. in Oceanography at Plymouth University, UK and M.S. in Anthropology and Development Studies at the London School of Economics, UK. He spent his last year before joining Stanford working as a policy analyst in Beijing, tracking developments in China’s maritime industries around the world.

His doctoral research, situated in the Silicon Valley area, broadly studies the relationships between diverse groups of innovators involved in digital ocean technologies. It aims to better understand when and how varied, and oftentimes divergent, interests and values can stimulate actors to propose, revise, imagine and re-imagine what kinds of infrastructure and downstream products will power the digital ocean.

When he has the opportunity to do so, Ryan spends most of his time in the water either surfing, diving or swimming.