WEST PLAINS, Mo. – Missouri State University-West Plains and the City of West Plains will host the 2017 American Association of Geographers-West Lakes Division (AAG-WLD) Annual Conference Oct. 19-21 at the West Plains Civic Center.
The selection of West Plains as the site of 2017 conference was made during the business meeting of the AAG-WLD’s 2016 conference Oct. 13-15 at Northern Michigan University in Marquette near Lake Superior. Northern Michigan’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Services served as host.
This will be the first time the conference has been held in Missouri since 1992 when the University of Missouri-Columbia served as host.
In addition, Dr. Rajiv Thakur, assistant professor of geosciences at Missouri State-West Plains, was elected chair of the AAG-WLD for the coming year. Thakur attended the conference with per course instructor Mary Ann Davis; current students Ana Protsenko of Willow Springs, Michael Wright of Thayer, and Michael Pilcher, West Plains; and former student Jacob Hollback, West Plains, who is currently a geography major at Missouri State University in Springfield. The trip was made possible with a grant from the university’s Annual Fund.
While at the conference, the group attended meetings and took a field trip to Sault Saint Marie in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a well-known vacation destination that also boasts a diverse waterfront, Thakur said. The trip also included a visit to the Soo Locks, where barges, freighters, tugboats and more make the 21-foot drop between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, he added.
“Between the conference and the field trip, the students admitted to having learned a lot and gaining an appreciation of the unique landscape history, geology and water resources that have shaped the culture and economy of the Upper Peninsula and Great Lakes region,” Thakur said. “This experience has driven several students to consider geography as their undergraduate major.”
Since returning, Thakur and members of his department, as well as colleagues at the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning at Missouri State University in Springfield, have begun planning for the 2017 event, which will bring more than 200 geographers and geospatial experts to West Plains. In addition to presentations of papers and posters, the three-day event will include field trips to various regions of the Ozarks and a Geography Bowl, Thakur said, adding faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and members of geospatial and planning agencies are expected to participate.
Dr. Daniel Sui, Division Director, Social and Economic Sciences, Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, D.C., will be one of two keynote speakers at the 2017 conference. Sui is currently Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor and Professor of Geography at The Ohio State University, where he served for four years as the Department Chair of Geography, according to the NSF website.
Sui also has courtesy appointments in OSU’s College of Public Affairs, College of Public Health, and City and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture. He has directed OSU’s Geographic Analysis Core in the Institute of Population Research and previously directed the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at OSU. His research interests focuses on GIScience, social media, volunteered geographic information, and health and security implications of climate change, according to the website.
“Having events such as the AAG conference on the West Plains campus are great opportunities for our campus community to interact with academic professionals invested deeply in their subject matter,” said Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Dennis Lancaster. “This particular gathering will expose our students and faculty to the latest in geoscience research, as well as give our out-of-town guests a chance to see and experience the Ozarks, an area rich in opportunities to experience our unique land and water resources.”
For more information about the upcoming conference, contact Thakur at 417-255-7288 or RajivThakur@MissouriState.edu.
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