ATScience 2026

March 27, 2026 • Vancouver, Canada

A full-day exploration of AT Protocol for science, education, and open knowledge. A side event to AtmosphereConf 2026 @ Vancouver, March 27, 2026

ATScience 2026 brought together a full day of scientific explorations on the AT Protocol.

Held as a side event to AtmosphereConf 2026 in Vancouver (March 27, 2026), this gathering brought together researchers, developers, and builders using ATProto for science, education, and open knowledge work.

The event featured presentations, panel discussions, project demos and an unconference. From academic researchers using Bluesky in innovative ways to new infrastructure for collaborative research and credentialing, we explored how ATProto can support transformative new science applications.

Event Recap

Read the recap: Shareouts from ATScience 2026 in Vancouver
A writeup of the talks, demos, and discussions from the day, published on Leaflet.

Watch the talks: Recordings on Semble

Agenda

View on Leaflet: The full conference agenda is available on Leaflet, an ATProto-native publishing platform. View the complete schedule, speaker details, and session descriptions:

Speakers

Rowan Cockett

Keynote Speaker

Curvenote & Continuous Science Foundation

Matt Akamatsu

Keynote Speaker

University of Washington

Ronen Tamari

Co-founder

Cosmik

Maria Antoniak

Assistant Professor

Cornell

Martin Karlsson

Co-initiator

Coordination Network

Maxine Levesque

Co-founder

atdata

Sean Jungbluth

Founder

BioKEA

Billy Pierce

PhD Student

University of Pennsylvania

Sophie Greenwood

PhD Student

Cornell CIS

Anish Lakhwara

Founder

Sealight Labs

Emily Hunt

Postdoc

Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna

Aaron White

Associate Professor

University of Rochester

Teon Brooks

President

Gotham Data Clinic

Travis Simpson

Founder & CEO

Skysquare

Dr. Scott McGrath

Academic Program Management Officer

UC Berkeley

Jay Patel

Ph.D. Candidate

University of Maryland

Mathew Lowry

Information Architect

EU Commission

Ellie DeSota

Co-director

SciOS

Laure Haak

Co-Founder

VeriMe Cooperative

Nick Vincent

Assistant Prof.

Simon Fraser University

Torsten Goerke

Research Associate

TU Dresden

Paul Fuxjäger

Research Associate

University of Vienna

Sophie Greenwood

PhD Student, Cornell CIS

Studying social media through the ATmosphere

The AT Proto ecosystem empowers novel social media research. Our research showcases three promising directions in this space: 1. Experiments on self-hosted feeds (Paper Skygest findings and customization interface), 2. Experiments on existing feeds via collaboration with feed designers (collaboration with Graze and Aendra), 3. Observational analyses of social media (SAEs on AT Proto posts)

View profile on Bluesky

Anish Lakhwara

Founder, Sealight Labs

Anish Lakhwara

Making wisdom together. Seams.so demo, and live workshop.

View profile on Bluesky

Emily Hunt

Postdoc, Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna

The Astrosky Ecosystem: An indepenedent online home for astronomy

What's the point of doing science if you can't tell anyone about it? I'll present The Astrosky Ecosystem, a community project by astronomers to democratize social media access for the space science & space fan communities. I'll talk about our 30 months of running custom feeds, as well as our future plans to start PDS hosting and even venture towards an astrophotography appview.

View profile on Bluesky

Aaron White

Associate Professor, University of Rochester

Chive: Decentralized Preprint Service

Chive is a decentralized preprint service featuring threaded review, formal endorsements, and a community-curated field taxonomy—all as portable ATProto records users own. Chive provides a rich plugin interface, making it imminently extensible as the ATmosphere grows. It currently provides builtin plugins for integration with existing ATProto services, such as Semble, Leaflet, and WhiteWind.

View profile on Bluesky

Teon Brooks

President, Gotham Data Clinic

Compuational Education Commons on for the ATmosphere

We will discuss new advances in computing education. We will highlight projects that teach computing and data science at scale using Pyodide. We propose a new infrastructure model that builds on these advances and incorporates the ATmosphere as an identity model and content storage. Using ATmosphere services like Tangled and Blacksky, we can truly democratize computing education.

View profile on Bluesky

Travis Simpson

Founder & CEO, Skysquare

Skysquare is context as a service.

Skysquare uses AT Protocol to reattach public discourse to its source, transforming the web into a socially annotated commons.

View profile on Bluesky

Dr. Scott McGrath

Academic Program Management Officer, UC Berkeley

Reigniting the Party: Lessons from a Stalled Migration to Bluesky

AMIA's vibrant Twitter backchannel fragmented post-X. This talk details our stalled effort to migrate the community to Bluesky. Despite a guide and conference launch, the "cold start" problem hindered adoption. I'll share lessons learned, discuss migration barriers, and outline revised strategies to rebuild our clinical research network.

View profile on Bluesky

Jay Patel

Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maryland

Crowdsourced Research Synthesis on ATProto: Envisioning an Inclusive Future

Research synthesis, a desirable culmination of primary research, is notoriously slow, error-prone, and disconnected from the network of potential contributors. Now, ATProto offers a digital foundation upon which to recruit collaborators (Bluesky feeds), assign micro-tasks (discourse graphs), author reports (leaflet.pub), and acknowledge contributions.

View profile on Bluesky

Rowan Cockett

Keynote Speaker, Curvenote and Continuous Science Foundation

Opening Keynote (with Matt Akamatsu)

The traditional scientific record—anchored in static, monolithic PDFs and siloed journals—is increasingly ill-equipped to handle the speed and complexity of modern discovery. This keynote explores a transition toward Modular Open Science: a future where research is a continuous, federated, and computable graph of knowledge. We outline a vision to move beyond isolated papers toward a world of interoperable research objects and introduce how the Open Exchange Architecture (OXA) and Discourse Graphs provide structural standards for this shift and can leverage the AT Protocol as a decentralized backbone. Additionally, we will discuss how tools like Curvenote and Discourse Graphs have enabled researchers to capture the computational origins of research and the granular logic of scientific inquiry in real-time, supporting networked research collaborations. Join us as we outline a roadmap for a modular ecosystem where data, code, and discourse are seamlessly integrated, verifiable, and interoperable.

View profile on Bluesky

Matt Akamatsu

Keynote Speaker, University of Washington

Opening Keynote (with Rowan Cockett)

The traditional scientific record—anchored in static, monolithic PDFs and siloed journals—is increasingly ill-equipped to handle the speed and complexity of modern discovery. This keynote explores a transition toward Modular Open Science: a future where research is a continuous, federated, and computable graph of knowledge. We outline a vision to move beyond isolated papers toward a world of interoperable research objects and introduce how the Open Exchange Architecture (OXA) and Discourse Graphs provide structural standards for this shift and can leverage the AT Protocol as a decentralized backbone. Additionally, we will discuss how tools like Curvenote and Discourse Graphs have enabled researchers to capture the computational origins of research and the granular logic of scientific inquiry in real-time, supporting networked research collaborations. Join us as we outline a roadmap for a modular ecosystem where data, code, and discourse are seamlessly integrated, verifiable, and interoperable.

View profile on Bluesky

Ronen Tamari

Researcher, Semble

Semble: A social knowledge network for research on ATProto

We’ll present Semble, a kind of “Spotify for research” enabling researchers to curate shareable collections, create knowledge trails that others can explore and extend, and discover relevant work shared with the network. Built on ATProto, Semble offers researchers data portability and an open API designed for extension. We'll discuss how Semble enables new kinds of research tooling, from living semantic citation graphs to collaborative review and annotation. We'll also share how Semble connects to Cosmik's broader work on collective intelligence, and opportunities for collaboration across the ATProto science ecosystem.

View profile on Bluesky

Maria Antoniak

Assistant Professor, Cornell

Lea: A Social App for Researchers

We will present Lea, a social app for researchers built on ATProto. Lea has many custom features for researchers, include (1) paper tracking, discovery, and discussion pages, (2) customized and verifiable profiles for researchers, and (3) extensive safety and moderation features to keep discussions calm and productive. We'll discuss our goals, challenges, and open questions for Lea.

View profile on Bluesky

Martin Karlsson

Co-initiator, Coordination Network

Automated science coordination with ATProto

AT Proto is a core component of the coordination.network stack. We will share lessons learned from initiatives including: Direct nano-publishing from the lab bench, hypothesis generation, replicability prediction, and automated progress reporting. The talk will hope to highlight pragmatic solutions we have found and to identify shared challenges we would love to address with the community.

View profile on Bluesky

Maxine Levesque

Co-founder, atdata

atdata: Distributed datasets over atproto

Fragmentation is an endemic problem for scientific data, and it hinders our collective ability to both work with traditional methodologies, and to realize outside of the big labs the potential of AI-driven methods for science. In this talk, we'll see how atproto enables a step-change for the use of large-scale, distributed, open, interoperable scientific datasets.

View profile on Bluesky

Sean Jungbluth

Founder, BioKEA

Reproducible, citation-aware automated paper reviews

BioKEA will demo a proof-of-concept automated reviewer for scientific papers. Provide an arXiv ID or PDF: it extracts structured text, pulls context from Semantic Scholar and PubMed, and outputs a critical review flagging errors, missing context, and citation gaps. We'll run it live, preview some features, and discuss publishing review artifacts on ATProto.

View profile on Bluesky

Billy Pierce

PhD Student, University of Pennsylvania

How (de)centralized is Bluesky, really?

Presenting a working paper on the functional (de)centralization of Bluesky. This includes the extent to which AT Protocol infrastructure is owned by entities other than Bluesky Social (through mapping ownership of PDS endpoints) and the implications of this (de)centralization on Bluesky Social's goals. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A and discussion!

View profile on Bluesky

Mathew Lowry

Information Architect, EU Commission

Your research institution in the Atmosphere

Research institutions face a structural gap between institutional knowledge (formal, slow, siloed) and the personal knowledge networks (informal, fast, distributed) of their faculty and students. The Atmosphere is the first infrastructure that can bridge this gap — not by centralising personal knowledge, but by making both layers speak the same protocol.

View profile on Bluesky

Ellie DeSota

Co-director, SciOS

Panel: Can decentralists cooperate? Rethinking commons and collective action in the age of platforms and AI

With increasing commodification of research come challenges to connection, communication, and research integrity. ATProto's open protocol, extensibility, and large uptake by researchers provides a unique moment of opportunity to reassert community control in the commons, and specifically in processes of science publishing and communication. But is merely building new technology on open protocols enough? This panel will explore how challenges facing the broader atproto ecosystem are mirrored in its open science applications.

View profile on Bluesky

Laure Haak

Co-Founder, VeriMe Cooperative

Panel: Can decentralists cooperate? Rethinking commons and collective action in the age of platforms and AI

With increasing commodification of research come challenges to connection, communication, and research integrity. ATProto's open protocol, extensibility, and large uptake by researchers provides a unique moment of opportunity to reassert community control in the commons, and specifically in processes of science publishing and communication. But is merely building new technology on open protocols enough? This panel will explore how challenges facing the broader atproto ecosystem are mirrored in its open science applications.

View profile on Bluesky

Torsten Goerke

Research Associate, TU Dresden

Strategic Cross-Protocol Partnerships

ATProto and ActivityPub are the two most serious open social web protocols today — and they almost never talk to each other. Both ecosystems want universities to own their infrastructure, both reject proprietary silos, and both are drafting governance frameworks for research communities. This talk makes the case for deliberate cross-protocol cooperation: not convergence, but alignment on a small set of shared values that unlocks structural gains for science and academia.

View profile on Bluesky

Paul Fuxjäger

Research Associate, University of Vienna

Strategic Cross-Protocol Partnerships

ATProto and ActivityPub are the two most serious open social web protocols today — and they almost never talk to each other. Both ecosystems want universities to own their infrastructure, both reject proprietary silos, and both are drafting governance frameworks for research communities. This talk makes the case for deliberate cross-protocol cooperation: not convergence, but alignment on a small set of shared values that unlocks structural gains for science and academia.

View profile on Bluesky

Nick Vincent

Assistant Prof., Simon Fraser University

Panel: Can decentralists cooperate? Rethinking commons and collective action in the age of platforms and AI

With increasing commodification of research come challenges to connection, communication, and research integrity. ATProto's open protocol, extensibility, and large uptake by researchers provides a unique moment of opportunity to reassert community control in the commons, and specifically in processes of science publishing and communication. But is merely building new technology on open protocols enough? This panel will explore how challenges facing the broader atproto ecosystem are mirrored in its open science applications.

View profile on Bluesky

Opening Keynote

9:15 - 10:00 AM

Speakers: Rowan Cockett (Curvenote) & Matt Akamatsu (Bluesky)

Opening keynote presentation setting the stage for ATProto in science and education.

Semble: A social knowledge network for research on atproto

10:00 - 10:15 AM | Ronen Tamari (Semble)

Presenting Semble, a social knowledge network built on ATProto designed to facilitate collaborative research and knowledge sharing.

Lea: A Social App for Researchers

10:15 - 10:30 AM | Maria Antoniak (Cornell)

We will present Lea, a social app for researchers built on ATProto. Lea has many custom features for researchers, include (1) paper tracking, discovery, and discussion pages, (2) customized and verifiable profiles for researchers, and (3) extensive safety and moderation features to keep discussions calm and productive. We'll discuss our goals, challenges, and open questions for Lea.

Chive: Decentralized preprints with ATProto

10:30 - 10:45 AM & 2:50 - 3:10 PM | Aaron White (University of Rochester)

Chive is a decentralized preprint service featuring threaded review, formal endorsements, and a community-curated field taxonomy—all as portable ATProto records users own. Chive provides a rich plugin interface, making it imminently extensible as the ATmosphere grows. It currently provides builtin plugins for integration with existing ATProto services, such as Semble, Leaflet, and WhiteWind.

Automated science coordination with ATProto

11:00 - 11:15 AM | Martin Karlsson (Coordination Network)

AT Proto is a core component of the coordination.network stack. We will share lessons learned from initiatives including: Direct nano-publishing from the lab bench, hypothesis generation, replicability prediction, and automated progress reporting. The talk will hope to highlight pragmatic solutions we have found and to identify shared challenges we would love to address with the community.

atdata: Distributed datasets over atproto

11:15 - 11:30 AM | Maxine Levesque (atdata)

Fragmentation is an endemic problem for scientific data, and it hinders our collective ability to both work with traditional methodologies, and to realize outside of the big labs the potential of AI-driven methods for science. In this talk, we'll see how atproto enables a step-change for the use of large-scale, distributed, open, interoperable scientific datasets.

Reproducible, citation-aware automated paper reviews

11:30 - 11:40 AM | Sean Jungbluth (BioKEA)

BioKEA will demo a proof-of-concept automated reviewer for scientific papers. Provide an arXiv ID or PDF: it extracts structured text, pulls context from Semantic Scholar and PubMed, and outputs a critical review flagging errors, missing context, and citation gaps. We'll run it live, preview some features, and discuss publishing review artifacts on ATProto.

How (de)centralized is Bluesky, really?

11:40 - 11:50 AM | Billy Pierce (University of Washington)

Presenting a working paper on the functional (de)centralization of Bluesky. This includes the extent to which AT Protocol infrastructure is owned by entities other than Bluesky Social (through mapping ownership of PDS endpoints) and the implications of this (de)centralization on Bluesky Social's goals. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A and discussion!

Discovering narrative strands and memetic lineages

1:00 - 1:08 PM | Francisco Carvalho (Community Archive)

The Community Archive is a community-owned dataset of contributed Twitter data used to study how ideas spread in online communities. We developed methods to extract "narrative strands" — coherent lines of discourse where ideas evolve and build on each other over time. These techniques generalize directly to atproto datasets and could help Bluesky communities understand their own emerging canons.

Building collective intelligence at ViewSift

1:08 - 1:16 PM | Alex Garcia-Joyner (ViewSift)

One of the biggest problems in society today is division driven by social / societal ills, information overload, and platforms that amplify echo chambers. In this talk we'll discuss how we're addressing all these problems at ViewSift through our new atproto social-research platform and teaching practical techniques to have healthy discussions around controversial topics that heal division.

Skysquare is context as a service

1:16 - 1:24 PM | Travis Simpson (Skysquare)

Skysquare uses AT Protocol to reattach public discourse to its source, transforming the web into a socially annotated commons.

Making wisdom together

1:24 - 1:32 PM | Anish Lakhwara (Sealight Labs)

Seams.so demo, and live workshop.

Reigniting the Party: Lessons from a Stalled Migration to Bluesky

1:32 - 1:40 PM | Scott McGrath (UC Berkeley)

AMIA's vibrant Twitter backchannel fragmented post-X. This talk details our stalled effort to migrate the community to Bluesky. Despite a guide and conference launch, the "cold start" problem hindered adoption. I'll share lessons learned, discuss migration barriers, and outline revised strategies to rebuild our clinical research network.

Integrating web-based communities into the ATmosphere

1:40 - 1:48 PM | Mathew Lowry (European Commission JRC)

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre, with over 3,000 scientists in several sites across Europe, has authorised a project to pilot the ideas I presented in Berlin at Eurosky.live in November. The pilot will inform the EC's social media strategy. Right now I have the ideas I presented in November - I want to workshop them in Vancouver to develop them further.

Computational Education Commons on the ATmosphere

1:48 - 1:56 PM | Teon Brooks (Gotham Data Clinic)

We will discuss new advances in computing education. We will highlight projects that teach computing and data science at scale using Pyodide. We propose a new infrastructure model that builds on these advances and incorporates the ATmosphere as an identity model and content storage. Using ATmosphere services like Tangled and Blacksky, we can truly democratize computing education.

Panel: Future of Science Social Media on Bluesky/ATProto

2:10 - 2:50 PM | Scott McGrath, Maria Antoniak, Ariel Lighty

A 40-minute discussion exploring the future landscape of scientific communication and community building on ATProto.

Owning your Identity: Fostering Community Control of Attribution

3:10 - 3:18 PM | Laure Haak (VeriMe Cooperative)

Focused on making distribution easier and faster, we researchers have ceded control of our creative work to third parties. This has had significant implications for attribution, integrity, accountability, and public trust. What if, instead of going after speed, we took a breath, and prioritized community? What would community-based identity and attribution look like?

Automated Research Metadata for Delightful Science

3:18 - 3:26 PM | Ellie DeSota (SciOS)

The Quantum Biology Institute, participated in an Automated Metadata FAIRification pilot from June through December 2025 led by SciOS. This 6-month project transformed their workflow from a manual one to one in which their lab notebooks, code, and data was automatically openly published with fully FAIR metadata for open accessibility. I would speak on the learnings and gaps in this process.

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