Conference History

The conference is named for explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and a founder of the National Geographic Society who joined Illinois Wesleyan University's faculty in 1865. He was the first U.S. professor to use field work to teach science. In 1867 Powell took Illinois Wesleyan students to Colorado's mountains, the first expedition of its kind in the history of American higher education.  Later, Powell was the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology.

See past presentations in the Digital Commons Read about the 20th anniversary of the conference in 2009
	View a Photo Gallery of the 2009 Conference