Brandt was born and raised in Acton, MA and was a naturalist from an early age. He received his bachelors of science in 1999 from a small environmental school in Maine called Unity College. Brandt completed his Ph.D. in Biology in 2008 from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Ryder has worked as a Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute for the las 10 years. Brandt is a broadly trained avian ecologist that works on the migration, behavior and conservation of birds. His research program leverages novel tracking approaches to study the complex social networks of animals and document the movement patterns of migratory birds. Effective conservation requires understanding when and where birds face threats and how social systems contribute to population persistence.