The AAG is proud to announce the Fall 2017 student winners of the AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting. The AAG Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper at a Regional Meeting is designed to encourage graduate student participation at AAG Regional Division conferences and support their attendance at AAG Annual Meetings. One graduate student in each AAG Regional Division receives this yearly award based on a paper submitted to their respective regional conference. The awardees receive $1,000 in funding for use towards their registration and travel costs to attend the AAG Annual Meeting. The board members from each region determine student award winners.

The winners from each region will be presenting their papers in two dedicated paper sessions at the upcoming 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The paper sessions are tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, April 10, 2018.

Autumn James

WLDAAG: Autumn C. James, Ph.D. candidate, Northern Illinois University
Paper Title: Construction of Safety in Daily Living: The Role of Personal Experience and Perception

Benjamin Hemmingway

SWAAG: Benjamin Hemingway, Ph.D. candidate, Oklahoma State University
Paper Title: Vertical Sampling Scales for Atmospheric Boundary Layer Measurements from Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS)

NESTVAL: Bogumila Backiel, M.S. (December 2017 graduate), University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Paper Title: Mapping Sandbars in the Connecticut River Watershed for Endangered Species Conservation

MAD: Joshua Wayland, PhD Candidate, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland College Park
Paper Title: Linking Natural Resources and Civil Conflict: A Spatial Panel Regression Approach

Maegen Rochner (center)

APCG: Sean Pries, PhD Candidate, Geography Graduate Group at University of California at Davis
Paper Title: The Past is the Key to the Present” Landscape of the Upper North Fork American River

Meghann Smith

SEDAAG: Maegen Rochner, PhD Candidate, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Paper Title: Climate Change in a High-Elevation Whitebark Pine Ecosystem, Beartooth Mountains, Wyoming, U.S.A.

MSDAAG: Meghann Smith, PhD Student, Montclair State University
Paper Title: Environmental and Economic Assessment of Hard Apple Cider in the Northeastern U.S.

Sam Roodbar

GPRM: Kimberly Johnson, PhD Student, Oklahoma State University
Paper Title: Perceptions and Performances of Wilder-scapes: Shaping contemporary social memories of the American West at Little House tourist sites

ELDAAG: Sam Roobar, Department of Geography, MA Student, Western Michigan University
Paper Title: “Spatial and Temporal Change in Halal Food Sales and Consumption: A case study of the city of Dearborn, Michigan”