Founder and President of EarthSky.org

Bio: Deborah Byrd was born in 1951 in San Antonio, Texas. She is an American science journalist, who created the long-running Star Date radio series for the McDonald Observatory in West Texas in 1978, and produced it until 1991. She then went on to create, produce and host the widely broadcast Earth & Sky radio series, which aired on National Public Radio and overseas for 22 years (1991–2013). Today, Debbie serves as Founder and Editor-in-Chief for the popular EarthSky.org website; it presents science news and night sky information to millions around the world. The website’s daily newsletter, EarthSky News, has about a quarter-million daily subscribers. Debbie has won numerous awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. She was an early winner of the Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 2003, Earth & Sky became the first radio show ever to win a Public Service Award from the U.S. National Science Board “for its achievement in broadcasting explanations of research and everyday science to a worldwide audience”. In 2020, Byrd was awarded the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the education of the public, students, and/or the next generation of professional astronomers. Debbie is also the founder of the annual Texas Star Party.