Association of American Geographers Applied Geography Specialty Group 2009/2010: A Year in Review

Student Paper Competition

Dr. Dawna Cerney of Youngstown State University spearheaded the revitalization of our student competition. Students were asked to submit a paper prior to the conference in which they employ “geographic methods, techniques, or analysis …in service to a real world client” (Applied Geography Specialty Group, 2010). We received six entries for the competition representing diverse topics. These included: Stephanie Day (University of Kansas) “The Decline of the Greasy Spoon: Implications of Truck Drivers’ Spatial Perceptions and Preferences for the Truck-Stop Industry”, Jinwoong Yoo (with DeWitt D Braud and Robert V Rohli) (Louisiana State University) “Visualizing Null Value Locations from LIDAR Image Mosaics”, Clio Andris (with Dietmar Offenhuber and David Lee) (MIT) “Trash Track”, Emily Pabst (University of Kansas) “Locally Crafted and Produced: Placemaking Within a Marketing Strategy”, Nicholas Cuba (Clark University) “Spatial Analysis of Resettled Refugee Populations in Worcester, MA”, and Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson (New Mexico State University) “Geography and Geographic Education with Smartphones”. We held an Interactive Short Paper Session at the AAG Annual Meeting that allowed each presenter 10 minutes, followed by an interactive group discussion. Nicholas Cuba won the competition and received a $500 prize. Another student paper competition will be offered in advance of next year’s 2011 AAG Annual Meeting in Seattle.