Mentor: Sarah Elizabeth Stockman

Bio: Anton Rybakin is a second-year meteorology student at Front Range Community College, completing his math and physics requirements to transfer to CU Boulder’s Atmospheric & Oceanic Science program. After several years in the high-pressure environment of the Colorado DMV, Anton realized that a genuine intellectual challenge was necessary for him and working hard for a passion is far more sustaining than working hard without one. Stepping away from that career at age 30, he redirected his discipline and customer-focus toward his passion for watching and interpreting the skies.

On the rare occasions he ventured outdoors as a kid, Anton would pocket rock specimens for later inspection and sketch elaborate weather maps that swept imaginary cold fronts across Denver—quiet rituals that, in hindsight, revealed the budding scientist. As he grew older and began hiking and camping in earnest, the intricate balance of each ecosystem captured his imagination; the more time he spent outside, the more he grasped their complexity and fragility that deserved his full attention. Grounded in a faith that calls for ecocentric stewardship, and equipped with the quantitative rigor of mathematics, Anton now channels that lifelong curiosity into confronting climate change, ensuring nature receives the stewardship it needs to flourish for generations to come.