The 2024 Assembly of the Order of the Octopus
The 2024 Assembly of the Order of the Octopus took place from August 8-12 at the historic Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. Bringing together 55 early-career researchers from different academic disciplines and institutions worldwide, the assembly provided a dynamic environment to explore SETI theory and techniques, share cutting-edge research, and build new collaborations. The program featured four keynote presentations, twenty-five contributed talks, and six posters, along with a panel discussion on the intersections of SETI and the law.
Selected recordings of the keynote presentations, contributed talks, and posters have been archived on Zenodo for broader accessibility.
The 2024 Assembly of the Order of the Octopus is a conference for early-career researchers who work in, or would like to begin working in, the field of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), also known as the search for technosignatures. The field experienced a dearth of funding from the 1990s into the early 2000s, but the rise of astrobiology and exoplanet research, as well as an influx of private funding, have renewed interest recently.
Unfortunately, that funding gap has led to a resulting career gap in the technosignatures field: there are many up-and-coming protostars in SETI, but very few postdocs or junior faculty mentors to help lead them professionally through the field. In addition, a lot of these early-career researchers are scattered across different universities and disciplines and find it challenging to connect with each other.
With that context, we are holding this conference to provide networking and community-building for early-career folks in SETI. We hope that it will provide a venue for participants to present talks and posters, perhaps even their first talks and posters, in a safe and supportive environment.
In designing the program for this conference, we are also striving to incorporate principles of inclusivity and interdisciplinarity, and to instill these values into the community from the ground up.
We also know that many undergraduates, especially those from smaller colleges and community colleges, may not have had the opportunity to participate in SETI, even though they are genuinely interested in doing so. We hope to provide resources and broadcast opportunities for those looking to engage with the field for the first time.
General Details
Who: Around 50-60 students and early-career academics across the interdisciplinary span of the search for technosignatures
What: A three-day in-person conference for early-career researchers in SETI
Where: Green Bank Observatory (Jansky Lab Auditorium), Green Bank, West Virginia, USA
When: August 9-11 [arrive on the 8th, leave on the 12th]
Why: Provide early-career researchers in SETI opportunities for networking, academic presentations, and professional development in a safe and supportive environment
Eligibility
This conference is intended for early-career researchers. To be eligible to apply, you must be interested in SETI research and meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate (e.g., B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) degree program;
- Have received an undergraduate degree after January 1, 2020.
- Have received a doctoral degree after January 1, 2016.
SETI is an interdisciplinary field. As such, there is no restriction to the academic field that your degree, degree program, or research fits under. We will prioritize attendance and presentations from people who have not had the opportunity to present their work in-person at conferences in the past.
Note that you do not need to be actively doing SETI research. There will also be a limited number of spots reserved for those who are interested in joining the technosignatures field, but have not yet done so (especially those that do not have the opportunity to do technosignature research at their home institution).
Application
Due to the limited hosting capacity at Green Bank, the conference will be by application only. In the application, you will be asked to provide information about your affiliation and career stage, interest in presenting, either research information (title, abstract, coauthors, etc.) or statements of your research interests, and your funding needs. The applications were accepted until 8 AM US Eastern Time, on Monday, April 15th. We expect to invite 50-60 applications to attend the conference. Applicants were notified of their invitation status in June.
Contact Email
If you have any questions about the conference, please feel free to contact the organizing committee at contact@theorderoftheoctopus.org.
Our Sponsors
Our conference was supported by a grant to the Green Bank Observatory from Unither Bioelectronique, in honor of Dr. Barry Blumberg, the late Chairman of its corporate parent’s Scientific Advisory Board.
The Order of the Octopus 