It was a big outing for the geology, geography and planning (GGP) department. No, it wasn’t a forest or a mountain; it was the Geological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting.

GGP had 27 students and faculty head to Seattle, Washington, to present 32 different talks and papers.

Faculty that presented or co-wrote papers were:

• Damon Bassett, GGP
• Toby Dogwiler, GGP
• Kevin Evans, GGP
• Douglas Gouzie, GGP
• Melida Gutierrez, GGP
• Matthew McKay, GGP
• Gary Michelfelder, GGP
• Kevin Mickus, GGP
• Emeritus Dr. James Miller, GGP
• Ridwan Sakidja, physics, astronomy and material sciences

Students that presented or co-wrote papers were:

• Brooke Benz, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Dalton Breeding, undergraduate from McKay’s lab
• Mark Byron Brown, graduate from McKay’s lab
• Jordan Cruzan, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Kinzang Duba, graduate from Mickus’s lab
• Ashley Gerik, undergraduate from McKay’s lab
• Rachel Jackson, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Brett Kenning, graduate from Evans’s lab
• Benjamin Lockwood, graduate from Gouzie’s lab
• Sourav Krishna Nandi, graduate from McKay’s lab
• Brandie Oehring, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• James Quick, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Emily Salings, graduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Kirsten Schaefer, graduate from Dogwiler’s lab
• Derek Spurgeon, undergraduate from McKay’s lab
• Tyler Sundell, graduate from Michelfelder’s lab
• Matthew Zerilli, undergraduate from Michelfelder’s lab

We’re glad they aren’t shy, considering there were over 7,000 attendees ranging from professionals in their field to interested high school students. There was representation from 54 different countries and over 5,000 presentations were made during the five-day event.

Past presentations

Presenting wasn’t enough for this group.

GGP held an alumni reunion, which reconnected 34 GGP Bears.

They also staffed a graduate student recruiting booth, producing interest in Missouri State’s graduate programs. They consider this a success, partnering with Missouri State’s Graduate College to run ads that generated interest throughout the meeting.

During the conference, GGP also opened new collaborations with the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct mineral research. Along with this, GGP is working with Johns Hopkins University to develop geologic tools for future moon missions.

This was a busy five days, but they made their mark at the meeting. Congratulations to all involved!