Ryder earned a master's degree in physics from
Oxford University, a
PhD in Mathematical Physics from
Edinburgh University under supervision of
Peter Higgs, and later an
SERC fellowship. In 1967 he went to the
University of Kent where he remained for the rest of his career and became a senior lecturer. His research interests were in geometrical aspects of
particle physics and its parallels with
general relativity, and the possible existence and detection of
torsion and
curvature in
spacetime. He also did research on the
geometric phase and in
condensed matter physics. ==Books==