Jackson Stewart (author) standing next to his poster displaying his research on the Wedington Sandstone at the American Geophysical Union on 12/16/2025
Author: Jackson Stewart | Major: Earth Science | Semester: Fall 2025
Between three-hundred-fifty-million and three-hundred-twenty-million B.C.E, a massive amount of sand was deposited by a river delta in the area now known as Arkansas between Fort Smith and Pea Ridge (extending a few miles into eastern Oklahoma). Since dubbed the Wedington Sandstone, the now lithified formation records, like a tree’s rings, the life history of the system which it once was. While completing majors earth science, history, and geography with minors in geology and biology, I (Jackson Stewart) have been conducting research with Dr. John Shaw on the southern portion of the Wedington Sandstone. This portion lies beneath the Earth’s surface, and the project is working to construct as complete a history as possible about the ancient system and justify its value to river delta research.
The finale of finals this past fall semester was followed in the next week by the American Geophysical Union’s 2025 conference. It took place in a cold New Orleans, in the numbingly expansive Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The poster hall in which the climactic moment of the conference experience occurred seemed so vast it could be used for the off-season storage of the cruise ships which dock less than a hundred meters away in the Mississippi River. It was there the second day where I was given the opportunity to present the culmination of a year-and-a-half of research in the Earth and Planetary Surface Processes section. I find it hard to consider another moment of my research experience which was more fortuitous; the discussions with peers, experts, and even those outside of the field in New Orleans has broadened my view of the research and helped discern what aspects of the research are exciting to the world.
Undergraduate and graduate conference-goers were eager to talk about academic and career plans; professors and professionals were liberal in offering advice on one’s research, discussing their own research, and exploring future opportunities. One leaves (I did) a research conference with a deeper understanding of what the academic world has to offer, a first-time conference-goer is unlikely to not be left struck by the knowledge and passion people have in the diversity of the universe’s procedure, from stratospheric aerosol injection to oyster reefs, from river deltas to climate-based disease-prediction.
For future conference-goers (I believe true to life generally), planning is critical to one’s experience. If the conference is similar to the American Geophysical Union’s this past December, an online schedule is available months in advance. Putting together a day by day itinerary with as much temporal resolution as is realistic ensures you will not regret missing anything (as much as is realistic); doing so early gives you the chance to email those who you wish to invite to a lunch-, dinner-, or even coffee-based conversation before their own schedules are filled. The future of this research on the Wedington Sandstone is in its wrapping-up and connection. Connecting it with the dissertation completed by Cory Hughes this December and to the Mississippi Birdsfoot Delta and ultimately producing a united consideration of the “life” history of the Wedington Delta system for publishing.