Don Byrd received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University in 1984. He is noted for his contributions to music information retrieval—a field he helped to found—and music information systems. He has also worked both inside and outside academia on text information retrieval, information visualization, user-experience design, and math education, among other things. Byrd is the author of the open source music notation system Nightingale. Now retired, he spends some time on music, but more working with Braver Angels (https://braverangels.org), a grassroots national organization dedicated to reducing the toxic polarization of society, where he co-chairs a “task force” to combat AI-driven polarization.