FROM THE ABGRADCON 2025 LEAD ORGANIZERS— We are proud and honored to collaborate with Birdy Magazine on this science-meets-art issue, created as part of the Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) 2025. This space was originally meant to hold the conference schedule, but the road to both this magazine and the conference has been more turbulent and demanding than anyone expected when we began organizing in June 2024. That journey, with all its challenges and hopes, is reflected in this year’s theme: Dark Skies, Bright Futures. Inspired by Colorado’s commitment to preserving the night sky, this theme became more than a motto. It reflected the uncertainty we faced, the resilience we relied on, and the light we found in each other’s efforts. And so, rather than listing the schedule (which you can find on the AbGradCon website), we’re using this space to honor the community that helped us build something bright beneath a darkened sky. To our organizing committee: your dedication, creativity, and resilience are the reason AbGradCon 2025 exists in the form it does. You were the scaffolding that supported every step of the process — emotionally, mentally, logistically. Without you, this conference simply could not have come together. We cannot begin to count the number of ways you helped us, but we shall try: Cara Pesciotta — We are so glad we met you in AbGradCon 2024, because it meant we got to rope you into organizing. Your early contributions helped form the bedrock of this effort and your later contributions helped build an amazing structure on that bedrock. Thank you for all that you took on: from fundraising to website management, and beyond. Catherine Fontana — We remember seeing some of the emails you AbGradCon25 sent and thinking, We wish we could write like Catherine. You’ve been instrumental in coordinating our keynote speakers, helping us with logistics, advertising the conference, and just so much more. Dani Buchheister — We could always rely on your creativity and imagination to give us an inspired idea. You helped shape the soul of this conference in the big and small things: designing the application; helping with conference programming; brainstorming how to conduct interviews for this issue — to name a few. Fletch — Working from the other side of the world, you still managed to be everywhere we needed. From design work to supporting international applicants to simply stepping in to deal with random challenges; thank you for always showing up. Justin Park — Thank you for returning as a co-organizer and sharing your experience and wisdom from the previous year. Your presence gave us confidence and continuity, and we’re lucky to have had you on the team. Mruthyunjay Kubendran Sumathi — Jay, it was always a delight to see your name pop up in Zoom and Teams. From social media to vendor outreach to fundraising, you consistently brought a reliability and calm energy that was much appreciated. Romulo Cruz-Simbron — Your support helped keep things moving when we needed it most. You backed up local efforts, supported our international applicants, and showed up when it counted. Ruth Quispe — Your work with on-the-ground logistics and social media kept essential pieces of this puzzle together. Your presence let us catch our breath when we most needed to. To Shea Thorne, Rohan Shiradhonkar, Tess Marlin and Zoë Havlena: You were there when we started on this venture. We can only imagine
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