The fifth statewide “Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas” was held on November 8-9, 2017 in Manhattan, Kansas. The conference was highly successful with 691 people registered and attending. Attending the conference was the Governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, and several state and national senators and representatives. The governor fully supports this conference and has expressed his concern about the issue of preserving and protecting the future viability of water in Kansas. The conference also included 35 volunteer scientific and four invited presentations, which were presented in plenary and concurrent sessions. Conference participants also had opportunities to attend four panel discussions. In the scientific poster session, there were eight faculty/staff/professional scientific posters and 33 student posters presented. A student poster award program (for both graduate and undergraduate posters) was conducted to encourage student participation.