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Greetings!

Colorado, home to stunning scenery of mountains, rivers, and plains, welcomes the Geological
Society of America’s 2022 Connects meeting (9–12 October) to Denver. Since the last GSA meet-
ing in Denver six years ago, we enjoyed the full gamut of normal life activities during the pre-
COVID years, hopefully navigated the syn-COVID years unscathed, and at this year’s meeting
perhaps we will excitedly enter a post-COVID time.
This meeting will be fully hybrid; nonetheless, the two of us look forward to seeing you all
during this stimulating scientific meeting, which includes 176 topical sessions, five Pardee
Symposia, 38 short courses, and 14 field trips. As GSA does so well, we have planned plenty of
engaging activities for students, early-career geoscientists, and K–12 educators, and we will have
a vibrant Resource & Innovation Center. One of the special aspects of an in-person meeting is
the spontaneous and not-so-spontaneous informal gatherings you make with colleagues, former
students, friends, and new scientists.
Want a break from the meeting? Enjoy a hike in the Front Range in one of dozens of parks
where you can walk across flat-lying Cenozoic sedimentary deposits and basalt flows that
unconformably overlie tilted Mesozoic and late Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that unconform-
ably overlie Proterozoic igneous and gneissic rocks. If you gain enough elevation, be greeted
by a stunning panorama of Denver and the Great Plains of Colorado. Or visit one of the many
museums, like the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, with offerings from art to minerals to
dinosaurs and more.
While in Denver, check out the recently opened Meow Wolf Convergence Station, Meow
Wolf’s third permanent exhibition in the United States. Check out Dinosaur Ridge and then visit
the best place to see the stars, Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, and see King Gizzard and the
Lizard Wizard. Walk the River North Arts District and see some of the best murals and graffiti.
A palette of flavors awaits you among Denver’s distinct restaurants, roving food trucks and food
carts, and cuisine from some of Denver’s semifinalists in this year’s James Beard Awards.

We look forward to seeing you in Denver,

Jeff Lee, research professor, Dept. of
Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines

Cal Barnes professor (retired), Dept. of
Geosciences, Texas Tech University

GSA 2022 Connects General Co-Chairs
Jeff Lee Cal Barnes

12 GSA TODAY | May 2022