Geoff Cunfer has good reason to smile. Geoff has just been awarded a three-year $95,000 SSHRC Standard Research Grant for his study "Rethinking the Dust Bowl." Geoff joined our department in September, having taught previously at Southwest Minnesota State University. His prizewinning 2005 book, On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment (Texas A&M Press) is racking up glowing reviews. Winning a SSHRC of this value in his first year of eligibility is testimony both to Geoff's outstanding record to date, and to the promise of even better yet to come. Congratulations, Geoff!

Congratulations, too, to Brett Fairbairn. Already principal investigator for a $589,000 SSHRC grant for a major interdisciplinary (and, indeed, cooperative) project entitled "Co-operative Membership and Globalization: Creating Social Cohesion", Brett is now also co-investigator on two new projects that have recently been funded: "Adapting to New Environments:Agriculture and Rural Economies in the 21st Century,"($300,000), and “Strategic Research Network on Social Innovation, the Social Economy, and Civil Society" ($25,000). So Brett, too, has every reason to smile.