Welcome to November, the ninth month of the year in the calendar of King Romulus!

It is my pleasure to let you all know that undergraduate major Morgan Hurt earned S.T.A.R (Student Training for Advancing Research) recognition from the Office of Undergraduate Research! The S.T.A.R. program was started this fall amidst the Covid pandemic, which restricted the access undergraduate students would normally have enjoyed to labs, studios, and other venues for research activity. The online workshops and accreditation programs in the S.T.A.R. program provide undergraduate students with valuable research skills and experience, preparing them for research activity when they are able to get involved with a research lab or scholarly group. If you are interested in learning more about this program, please go to the S.T.A.R. website. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Morgan!

Please join me in celebrating Dr. Clayton Blodgett’s 20 years of service at the University of Missouri! Not all of those twenty years have been in the Geography Department, but he has essentially made two decades’ worth of contributions to our program in the time he has been with us, from bringing GEOG 3040 GIS I online and more than doubling enrollment in that class, to the work he has done as remote-sensing scholar and research mentor, to founding the Heidelberg Research Council and thumping out the groovy bass lines in the Urban Coyotes! Thank you, Clayton, for your long and valuable service to Geography and the University.

The results from the first MU Geography All-Hallows’ Eve Jack-O’-Lantern Contest are in! Fran Rodriguez-Hart won first place with a 360-degree carving of a beautiful mountain scene complete with a standalone Engelmann spruce and the words “GEOG”; Morgan Hurt won second place with her imaginative rendering of PAW-gea; Seth Kannarr took third-place with an exquisite carving of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park; and Kadie Clark received honorable mention for what was indeed the happiest Jack-O’-Lantern of them all! Special thanks to Abby Hunt and Deb Cutler for advertising and coordinating the contest, and to Seth Kannarr for the original inspiration and idea.

Let’s all wish Andy Emerson well as he competes in the Ozark Trail 100 Mile Endurance Run this Saturday in the vicinity of Steelville, Missouri. Yes, you read that right: one…hundred…miles…! That’s a lot of miles for an automobile, but for a human being, it’s astounding—nay, superhuman (or is it just inhumane?). Also running is MU geography alumna Beth Kelly (MA, ‘13). We will be thinking of you, Andy, as we’re sitting on our duffs eating bonbons and watching some college football…good luck and have fun!

Don’t forget to get out and vote tomorrow! For all faculty and graduate students who are teaching tomorrow, please allow students the time they need to exercise their civic duty of voting and serving as poll workers.

M-I-Z!

G-E-O!

Soren