AbGradCon 2021: Lessons in Digital Meetings, International
  Collaboration, and Interdisciplinarity in Astrobiology
  The Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) is an annual conference both
organized for and by early career researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and
students as a way to train the next generation of astrobiologists and develop a
robust network of cohorts moving forward. AbGradCon 2021 was held virtually on
September 14-17, 2021, hosted by the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of
Tokyo Institute of Technology after postponement of the in-person event in 2020
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting consisted of presentations by 120
participants from a variety of fields, two keynote speakers, and other career
building events and workshops. Here, we report on the organizational and
executional aspects of AbGradCon 2021, including the meeting participant
demographics, various digital aspects introduced specifically for a virtual
edition of the meeting, and the abstract submission and evaluation process. The
abstract evaluation process of AbGradCon 2021 is unique in that all evaluations
are done by the peers of the applicants, and as astrobiology is inherently a
broad discipline, the abstract evaluation process revealed a number of trends
related to multidisciplinarity of the astrobiology field. We believe that
meetings like AbGradCon can provide a unique opportunity for students and early
career researchers in astrobiology to experience community building, inter- and
multidisciplinary collaboration, and career training and would be a welcome
sight in other fields as well. We hope that this report provides inspiration
and a basic roadmap for organizing future conferences in any field with similar
goals.
