Recap of the AWG meet-up at COSPAR 2026, Florence held August 4th

[katherine.j.baxter]

It was wonderful to see so many friends and OSDR members at the community meet-up during COSPAR/ELGRA in Florence, and well done to all those giving AWG talks and posters, showcasing awesome open science!

Even in a scorching food hall (40 °C!), the evening was full of good cheer and sweaty scientific discussion.

Among many others, we were joined by Theodoros Pavlidis, Jakub Mieczkowski, Urszula Ławrynowicz, @AnuragSakharkar, Kate Robson Brown, Stevie Bain, Jenny Mortimer, Matt Gilliham, @cdavis, @fumimuratani, Michaela Walsh, @stefania.sabau, @astro_gego @alexa.sadier, @MFilipa, @Alex, @agata.rudolf, Andile Mdawe, Lucy Cairns, Jennifer Taylor and Boba Fett the dog.

Thank you to everyone who joined @nicholas.brereton and me and made it such a fun evening!

Katherine @AWGall

[rtscott2001]

I just looked it up, and 40ºC is 104ºF

It was great to see the various posters and shots on LinkedIn from the talks given by the OSDR AWG community

Did anyone eventually meet-up and see @aam Ashish Mahabal’s talk on Friday? I had only forwarded the social invite to AWG members in Europe, so Ashish didnt know about it

So glad you could join them @fumimuratani

Lesson learned for next in-person event

[rtscott2001]

Wait, what is Boba Fett the dog?

[nicholas.brereton]

I think we need a boba picture…

[rtscott2001]

Someone brought their doggy?

Also tagging @marie.mortreux — the graduate studnet from your Univ Rhode Island lab Theodoros Pavlidis was able to join

[rtscott2001]

Pretty cool also to see Plant, Regolith, Microbe, Planetary Protection, Animal, and Multi-Omics AWGs all represented to some degree