Bryan graduated from Yale University in 2008, simultaneously receiving his B.S. (cum laude and with Distinction) and M.S. degrees in Chemistry. Bryan received his Ph.D. at Caltech working under Harry B. Gray, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Davis with R. David Britt. He also holds a Master's degree in Education.

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While at Caltech, Bryan studied the mechanism of water oxidation by heterogeneous, earth-abundant catalysts. He was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a Fellow of the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech. His Thesis was awarded the 2019 Nobel Laureate Signature Award, the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Young Investigator Award, the 2017 Dow Sustainability Innovation Challenge Award, the Herbert Newby McCoy Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Chemistry, and the Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prize in Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources.

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Bryan was a 2004 United States Presidential Scholar.