Ryan Wallace, UT-Austin Doctoral Candidate (Now a Ph.D.)

It's now Dr. Ryan Wallace. On April 8, the solar eclipse day, Ryan Wallace's committee unanimously approved (and praised) his dissertation, with nearly 70 friends and family attending the defense and remembrance meeting from all over the world.

Previous post: This GoFundMe helps the family of Ryan Wallace, a doctoral candidate who was two weeks away from defending his dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin when he was killed in a bus-car accident on March 22 near Bastrop, Texas. Ryan, originally from LaVerne, California, was 33 years old.

Two updates to share: First, thanks, everyone, for helping us reach our goal of $7,500. I just learned from his mother that bringing Ryan back to California for his service plus the funeral and expenses is even more than the $11,000 that we've raised so far. Please keep contributing to this fund.

Also: email I received yesterday: "Hi there. I'm a teacher at Tom Green Elementary and was not directly involved with the accident but I've been very involved with everything since. I went to the crash site 2 days later and could not stand the thought of Ryan and Ulises' souls being alone without public memory or acknowledgement so I created a memorial for them both. It has bears and candles but Ryan was very much considered when we did this. I am glad he can be with Ulises in heaven and protect him. Ulises was an incredible boy and will need Ryan."

All of the funds raised here will be given directly to Ryan's family to help expenses associated with his sudden death. Ryan's family, mostly based in California, has been in contact with Journalism and Media faculty and approves of this effort.

A Moody College feature on Ryan pointed out that his research interests focused "on how science is portrayed in the media, and ways in which researchers and journalists can better work together to convey science to the general public. As a science writer and editor, he has worked with publications such as The Latin Post, The Science Times, and Archaic Press Magazine. He holds a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (2013) from the University of California, Irvine, and a MS in Biotechnology (2017) from California State University, San Marcos."