Conference Program

ABGRADCON22• SCIENCE will be a 4-day conference event. We will have TWO ~2.5-hour SCIENCE session per day. We are trying to use diverse presentation formats in order to increase the interaction and maximize online engagement.


As a potential attendee to, you can

(1) submit your abstract and indicate your preference of presenting a talk versus a poster.

(2) propose and lead a discussion topic within the Small Group Discussion session (SGD).


Different presentation formats in ABGRADCON22• SCIENCE include:

A. Research presentation in talks or posters

We will assign all accepted abstracts into 8 different themes and each theme will have a talk and a poster component.

A.1. Talks:

We will present the talk and record the presentation in live. Each talk will be 15 minutes in total with at least one interactive component (e.g., doodle poll, short video clips, etc.) and Q&A session. In order to limit the duration of daily science component to be <5 hours, we can only assign 2-3 talks per science theme unfortunately. We encourage talks, although if there is high demand we may not be able to accommodate talks for all participants who desire them.

A.2. Posters:

We strongly encourage all poster presenters to prepare a recorded 1-min lightning talk about their research in order to practice presentation skills and highlight their research significance/results. We will watch the compilation of recorded poster lightning talks together prior to the 30 min interactive poster session. All poster presenters are encouraged to be present during the interactive poster session; however, a different availability can be indicated to ensure sufficient science communication at your convenience.


B. Keynote presentation *2

We will have 2 keynote presentations in total during the conference week. Each keynote presentation will be ~45 minute plus additional ~15 minute Q&A.


C. Professional development panel *2

We will have 2 professional development panels with the themes "Achieving IDEA within Astrobiology" and "Diverse Career Path within Astrobiology" respectively. Each panel will feature 3-4 invited speakers and the conversation will be moderated by a host. Questions and live interactions are encouraged.


D. Small group discussion sessions (SGD) *4

In order to increase peer-interaction during the conference, we designed SGD with four different themes "Achieving IDEA within Astrobiology", "Building collaboration and establishing networks", "Science outreach /communication", and "the future of Astrobiology". Each SGD session will have 5 min intro of the topic, 30 min roundtable discussion, and 15 min report. If you are interested in particular theme(s), you are encouraged to propose a topic and lead roundtable group discussion (a group of ~8-10 attendees) during GDS. However, if you are fatigued by the long screen time, you are not required to attend SGD.

ABGRADCON22• SOCIAL will be a METAVERSE (a.k.a. virtual space) for you to socialize with your peers. You are NOT required to attend the social components if you feel overwhelmed. Because we deeply empathize with the frustration and isolation resulting from multiple aspects of life during this pandemic, we plan to schedule many online activities, including movie night, cooking, coffee socials, etc., for you to eat, drink, relax, and network with other astrobiologists before and after during the conference week. 


As a potential attendee, you are encouraged to

(1) propose and lead any social event you would like.

(2) join virtual outreach event online.


Different presentation formats in ABGRADCON22• SOCIAL include:

A. Online social event

You can check "https://www.airbnb.com/s/experiences/online" to get an idea what type of social activities you could propose online. This will be a safe place for you to showcase your talents/hobbies and make friends with peers. Once your proposed social event is accepted, we will arrange space in our virtual platform and incorporate your event in our program. This will be a great time to network and promote yourself within the astrobiology field!]

 

B. Outreach activities

We encourage everyone to join at least one outreach event. The specific format and activities haven't decided yet but we would love to form group of 15-20 attendees per outreach event. Current plan is to record your reaction and explanation of different science experiments/activities we did online (if you agree) and promoted the videos via social media. We strive to make the knowledge of astrobiology more acceptable to the general public. Outreach activities and science communication will be a huge goal of our mission. Let us know if you have unique ambition and insights to make this goal achievable at abgradcon@gmail.com.

Highlight of Monday:

Highlight of Tuesday:

Highlight of Wednesday:

Highlight of Thursday:

Your contribution makes this program complete.

Remember to submit an abstract, propose a SGD topic, and/or live social event!