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Keynote Speakers

 

Alberto Brovarone

University of Bologna, Italy

 

Alberto is Professor of petrology at the University of Bologna, Italy. His research centers on fluid-rock interactions and the cycling of hydrogen and carbon in the lithosphere. During the last five years, his work has focused on extending our knowledge about the process of serpentinization to its deepest and warmest conditions, on the related genesis of high-pressure energy sources, and on their implications on the sustainment of deep subsurface life at convergent margins.

Website: Deep Carbon Laboratory

Antonio Langone

University of Pavia, Italy

 

Antonio’s research focuses on the timing of tectono-metamorphic and magmatic processes occurring within the continental crust. Antonio uses a multidisciplinary approach from field work to isotopic measurements within the lab. He has dedicated a large part of his recent research activities to investigating the interplay between microstructures and fluids, focussed the modification of the U-Th-Pb isotopic system of different geochronometers.

Website: University profile

Sandra Piazolo

University of Leeds, UK

 

My main scientific interest is the understanding of micro- and mesoscale processes and their link to macro-scale phenomena. To achieve this, it is essential to quantify microstructures and thus micro-structural processes active at a variety of P-T-fluid conditions. In addition, the development of new techniques to observe, interpret and evaluate processes in the Earth and other planets is part of my research. I combine field and laboratory analysis, and numerical modelling to get to the bottom of the processes that shape our Earth. Main fields of interests are rheology of Earth Materials, fluid rock interaction at static and dynamic conditions and the application of geoscience to the energy transition.

Website: University profile

Basil Tikoff

University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.

 

Basil is a quantitative field geologist who enjoys working on how deformation occurs at different levels within the Earth’s tectonic plates. Consequently, he works a lot on shear zones. His research group uses a variety of tools to address questions associated with structural geology and tectonics: Geological field mapping, kinematic modeling, microstructural analysis, geomagnetism (paleomagnetism and AMS), statistics, and gravity surveys.

Website: University profile

Lu Wang

China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

 

Lu integrates field- to microstructural-scale analysis with petrology, geochemistry and geochronology to establish the physical and chemical evolution of orogenesis at Phanerozoic and Precambrian convergent plate boundaries. Recent research examines (1) the deformation, metamorphism, melting and fluid history of ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks exposed in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt, and (2) the initiation and style of Archean plate tectonics.

Website: University profile

Confimed Speakers

 

Sheree Armistead

University of Tasmania

 

Sheree is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at CODES (Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences) at the University of Tasmania. Her research focuses on the links between plate tectonics and ore deposits, and the cyclical and secular changes of these throughout Earth’s history. Sheree completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide on the tectonic evolution of supercontinent Gondwana, focusing on Madagascar. She undertook a postdoc at the Geological Survey of Canada and Laurentian University investigating global-scale Pb isotope signatures of Archean ore deposits. Her current research at UTAS focuses on critical mineral systems in western Tasmania and links to deep time plate tectonics.

Website: University profile

Peter Betts

Monash University

 

Pete is a tectonicist and geoscientific synthesiser who has research interests that span Precambrian tectonics, congested subduction, and ocean initiation, mainly in the Red Sea.  He is trained as a structural geologist but now mainly applies structural geology approaches to gravity and magnetic datasets to resolve regional and plate scale tectonic problems. Pete is the Associate Dean of Graduate Research in the Faculty of Science and a past President of the Geological Society of Australia.

Website: University profile

Phil Blevin

Geological Survey of New South Wales

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Solomon Buckman

University of Wollongong

 

Dr. Solomon Buckman, Associate Professor at the University of Wollongong, specializes in the tectonic evolution of Eastern Australia, the Himalayas, and the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. His research focuses on the origins and chronology of enigmatic ophiolitic and island arc terranes within suture zones and subduction complexes, essential for refined tectonic models and the exploration of critical minerals. His scholarly output, advancing geological interpretations and mineral exploration strategies, is accessible via his profiles on the University of Wollongong's scholars portal.

Website: University profile or Google Scholar profile

Rebecca Carey

University of Tasmania

 

Rebecca’s research is focused on magmatic, volcanic and sedimentary processes in marine and terrestrial environments. Rebecca designs, leads and conducts field studies in both marine and terrestrial settings to collect geological and geophysical data that address fundamental questions in earth sciences. Her current projects are related to understanding magma ascent processes, the role of water in submarine eruption, transport and deposition, magmatism and volcanism involved in continental rifting, and mantle sources and reservoirs responsible for volcanism in offshore eastern Australia and the Central Kerguelen Plateau. Rebecca is the current leader of the GSA’s Learned Australasian Volcanology Association (LAVA).

Website: University profile

Chris Clark

Curtin University

 

Chris is a metamorphic geologist at the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University. His research interests are centred around ancient collisional orogenic systems and the metamorphic record from subduction to exhumation contained within their currently exposed remnants. His approach is to link field observations with isotopic, structural and metamorphic datasets with the aim of developing robust geological simulations of orogenic processes.

Website: Research group

Alan Collins

University of Adelaide

 

Professor Alan Collins is one of the founders of the Tectonics and Earth Systems Group at Adelaide University. He is a geologist and is interested in plate tectonics, especially in the Proterozoic and especially in reconstructing the Proterozoic plate-tectonic network and how plate interactions govern earth surface systems and led to the incredibly dynamic planet we have today. Alan is a charlatan really and uses the hard work and skills of his amazing colleagues and students to make himself look good… long may it last!

Website: University profile and Research group

Sandy Cruden

Monash University

 

Sandy's research focusses on pure and applied structural geology, tectonics, geodynamics and mechanisms of magma transport and emplacement in the Earth's crust. Sandy's group tries to understand geological problems and processes by combining quantitative 3D laboratory analogue modelling with field geology and applied geophysical techniques. Current ARC-funded projects include understanding the solid and fluid dynamics of Ni-sulphide mineralisation in mafic intrusions, the geodynamics of Proterozoic rift basins in N Australia, and the controls on seismic activity within transpressive plate boundaries (e.g., Marlborough Fault System vs the Southern Andes). In his spare time, Sandy consults on geological aspects of the underground storage of spent nuclear fuel, mostly in Canada.

Website: University profile

Luc Doucet

Curtin University

 

Luc Doucet hails from Bourg-en-Bresse, a small town in France, famous for its blue-white-red tricoloured (and delicious) chickens. He completed his PhD in St Etienne, France, in 2012, and subsequently received a three-year fellowship from the Belgium Fund for Scientific Research. This opportunity took him to Brussels, where he applied "non-traditional" stable-isotope systematics to mantle and crustal rocks, studying the formation of both oceanic and continental lithosphere. After a two-year break from academia to be a stay-at-home dad, Luc moved to Curtin University in March 2018. There, he joined the Earth Dynamics Research Group and collaborated with Prof. Zheng-Xiang Li to decipher the connections between Earth's mantle, supercontinent and superocean cycles, both in the present day and historically. In 2023, he has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to work on “linking the deep carbon cycle with critical mineral deposits”. This project aims to determine how the global carbon cycle controlled the occurrence of carbonatites, which provide most of the world’s rare earth elements, using novel methods to improve our understanding of carbonatites and carbon-rich mantle rocks. His work involves using clean labs, various instruments, data mining, and occasional fieldwork to obtain petrological, geochemical, and isotopic data on mafic and ultramafic rocks. With the support of other members of the Earth Dynamics Research Group, he aims to reconstruct the geodynamic processes that have shaped the Earth as we know it today.

Website: Research group

Katy Evans

Curtin University

 

Katy Evans is a research and teaching academic, recognised internationally for her work on fluid–rock interaction in environments that range from the production of contaminated mine waters to the formation of melts in the deep Earth.  Current projects include an investigation of multi-scale controls on magmatic Ni-sulphide mineralisation, two Australian Research Discovery Projects awarded in 2020 on mineral interfaces and platinum group minerals in serpentinites, being inorganic geochemistry lead on the multi-disciplinary Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Project, and multiple projects that use the Curtin Experimental Geochemistry laboratory, where she is facility leader.

Website: University profile

Isra Ezad

Macquarie University

 

Isra is an experimental petrologist with an interest in mantle petrology, the role of volatiles (H2O and CO2) in the deep Earth and chasing exotic melts to the surface. Her research combines high-pressure experiments with analysis of mantle xenoliths and nano-analytical techniques to understand the composition of the Earth’s mantle and how it has evolved through time. Isra completed her Ph.D at University College London (UK) and made the move Down Under in 2020 to join the ARC Laureate Project at Macquarie University.

Website: ResearchGate profile

Melanie Finch

James Cook University

 

Melanie is a Lecturer and structural geologist at James Cook University, within the Economic Geology Research Centre. She is an ARC DECRA fellow and won a 2023 Queensland Young Tall Poppy Award. Melanie previously held positions at Monash University in Australia and the University of Tuebingen in Germany. Melanie combines numerical modeling and detailed analysis of naturally deformed rocks to understand how fluids migrate through ductile shear zones. She has worked on shear zones worldwide, recently focussing on shear hosted IOCG and skarn deposits in Northern Queensland, Australia.

Website: www.melaniefinch.net

Nicolas Flament

University of Wollongong

 

Nicolas Flament is an Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Wollongong (Australia). He obtained his Ph.D. from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France) and The University of Sydney (Australia). He investigates the deformation of the solid Earth over tens of million years by merging geodynamic models with global geological observations. He is recipient of Australian Research Council DECRA (2016) and Future (2023) Fellowships, the 2017 European Geosciences Union Geodynamics Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award, the 2021 Anton Hales Medal (Australian Academy of Science), and the 2021 David Syme Research Prize (The University of Melbourne).

Website: University profile

Eleanor Green

University of Melbourne

 

Eleanor is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Petrology at the University of Melbourne. Her mineral equations of state can be used via software such as MAGEMin or thermocalc to simulate petrological processes, such as tectonically-driven metamorphism or geotherm-modifying magmatism. Current projects include (1) an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on constraining fluid infiltration and critical mineral enrichment in salty metamorphic belts, (2) an experimental and modelling study on constraining the depth of partial melting in the Archaean mantle, and (3) the development of a new tool for thermobarometry, combining the strengths of both pseudosection modelling and multiple-reaction thermobarometry.

Website: Reserach group

Weronika Gorczyk

University of Western Australia

 

Weronika Gorczyk is a senior researcher at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western Australia. She has an extensive background in geodynamics, for last 5 years she has been focusing on sedimentary basins,  especially ones of Proterozoic age in Australia. This gives her an unique perspective on the evolution of basins, encompassing the view from the bottom-up rather than top-down.

Website: University profile

Jacqueline Halpin

University of Tasmania

 

Jacqueline’s research examines deep-time geological processes including: crustal growth and architecture; continental rifting, breakup and exhumation; and tectonic cycles and supercontinent configurations. Jacqueline is currently working on Antarctic geoscience themes such as exploring subglacial geology, past ice sheet change and Earth-cryosphere interactions, as part of the ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science Special Research Initiative (ACEAS) based at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

Website: University profile

Patrick Hayman

Queensland University of Technology

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Bruce Hobbs

Mineral Dynamics, Fremantle

 

Bruce is a structural geologist interested in understanding the thermo-mechanics of deformed metamorphic and hydrothermal systems. As such he works on coupled deforming-chemically reactive systems with synchronous fluid and heat flow. Recent work has concentrated on (1) mineralising hydrothermal systems and their characterisation at both orebody and regional scales using the toolbox of nonlinear dynamics, (2) the influence of non-hydrostatic stress on metamorphic equilibrium and kinetics, (3) the influence of adding a cap to conventional yield surfaces with respect to vein, joint and shear-zone formation and the effect of metamorphic reactions on the nature of the cap.

Email: bruce.hobbs@csiro.au

Tim Johnson

Curtin University

 

Tim’s research concentrates on the study of crystalline rocks from a wide variety of geographic and geodynamic settings in an effort to understand what they can tell us about fundamental processes on Earth. His expertise lie in metamorphic petrology, in particular the application of phase equilibria modelling. Much of his work has concentrated on the generation, segregation and migration of melt in the crust and upper mantle, the fundamental processes driving the evolution of the lithosphere. Tim’s current interests include (and conflate) the early Earth, planetary differentiation, secular change in metamorphism and the consequences of giant impacts. He does as much fieldwork as he is allowed.

Website: University profile

Balz Kamber

Queensland University of Technology

 

Balz is a mineralogist and geochemist originally from Switzerland, having worked at universities in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia. He is currently Professor of Petrology at QUT. His research has contributed to the understanding of the long-term evolution of the Earth and on the connections between deep Earth reservoirs and the planetary surface and ocean. He has extensive expertise in applying advanced inorganic chemical and isotope analysis to real-world problems, and in developing new software tools for intuitive analysis of big geoscience data.

Website: University profile

Myra Keep

University of Western Australia

 

Myra’s main interests are basement inheritance, fault reactivation and inversion, and neotectonics, including causes of modern far-field stress. She incorporates field and geophysical data, especially seismic and deep crustal seismic, in both Precambrian (Albany-Fraser) and recent (East Timor) orogenic belts, looking especially on deep crustal controls on younger fault reactivation. She has a particular interest in the present-day stress and seismicity in northern WA, both onshore and offshore, and she has been involved in seismic monitoring of low magnitude events. This work also extends to investigating links between recent seismicity and the extensive landslide provinces off the northern Australian margin. She is part of the science team of IODP 386 (Japan Trench Palaeoseismicity), looking for evidence of palaeoseismicity in sediments and hydroacoustic data in the Japan Trench.

Website: University profile

Andrew Merdith

University of Adelaide

Andrew is a computational Earth scientist at the University of Adelaide. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2018, and then spent three years in Lyon (France) modelling serpentinisation and hydrogen flux in oceanic environments before moving to Leeds (UK) during the Covid years. At Leeds he began to couple tectonic models with palaeoclimate and biogeochemical models to understand the solid Earth drivers of changes in the Earth system. He recently moved to Adelaide to continue this project, with a particular focus on the Neoproterozoic.

Website: Research group

Louis Moresi

Australian National University

 

My work is in computational geodynamics, specifically a combination of novel algorithm development with application to the large scale, long-term evolution of the system of tectonic plates and plate boundaries. I lead the Underworld software project which is a fast, flexible, parallel, geodynamic modelling package with in- built symbolic algebra for handling difficult non-linear problems and optimisation. My current area of interest is in connecting the seismic-rupture timescale to the surface relaxation timescale to understand how megathrust earthquakes change the figure of the Earth and vice versa: how changes in the surface loading of the Earth may feed into the seismic cycle at plate boundaries.

Website: University profile and Underworld

 

Laura Morrissey

University of South Australia

 

Dr Morrissey uses thermodynamic modelling and metamorphic petrology to investigate the evolution of the Earth’s continents. Her main research interests include understanding the evolution of the Australian and Antarctic continents in the Proterozoic, understanding the role of high temperature metamorphism and anataxis on the long-term strength and distribution of elements in the crust; and understanding the processes that move base metals and rare earth elements to create mineral deposits. She is focused on building unique research methodologies to inform the sustainable development of earth resources within Australia.

Website: University profile

Indrani Mukherjee

University of New South Wales

 

Indrani Mukherjee's research focuses on deep time geology. The approach involves a nuanced understanding of ancient marine environments, via novel and cutting-edge geochemical techniques. Her research questions key concepts, and explores links between early Earth evolution, the origin of complex life and formation of precious mineral deposits. Indrani earned her BSc Honours and Masters in Geology at the University of Delhi. She completed her PhD at UTAS in 2018 where she worked as a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher in Earth Science until 2022. She then went on to pursue the Roger E Deane Fellowship at the University of Toronto. Currently, Indrani is a lecturer and researcher in Earth Sciences at the University of New South Wales.

Website: University profile

Jacob Mulder

University of Adelaide

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Hugo Olierook

Curtin University

 

Hugo is a geochronologist at Curtin University who loves placing geological problems into a temporal context. By adding time to 3D problems, he helps the mining industry explore for critical metals, evaluates the drivers of past climatic crises, and explores tectonics throughout Earth’s history. Hugo is also passionate about sharing his love for science with school-aged students and the wider public.

Website: https://www.hugoolierook.com/

Justin Payne

University of South Australia

 

Justin is an Associated Professor at the University of South Australia. He teaches into an Environmental Science program and hence his activities have diversified somewhat in recent years to include low temperature pursuits such as Ediacaran palaeontology, soil chemistry, landscape evolution and mine site contamination. Underpinning most of this is his primary research interests in geochemistry, geochronology, isotope geochemistry and mass spectrometry. These fields are applied to mostly high-temperature processes with a focus on igneous rock petrogenesis, a dash of metamorphic geology and the broadscale tectonic environments for these events.

Website: University profile

Tom Raimondo

University of South Australia

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Patrice Rey

University of Sydney

 

Patrice Rey is professor at the School of Geosciences at The University of Sydney. Combining fieldwork and numerical experiments, he documents the processes shaping the evolution of the lithosphere over the Earth's history. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Ecole Normal Supérieure Lyon and the University Joseph Fourier (Grenoble). He was postdoc at the University of Wyoming (1992-93) and at the GeoForschungsZentrum (Potsdam, 1994), and lecturer at Monash University (1995-2000). He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America (2014) and awarded the A.B. Edwards Medal (2013) and the Bruce Hobbs Medal (2022) from the Geological Society of Australia.

Website: https://geoscience-prey.sydney.edu.au/

Bruno Vieira Ribeiro

Curtin University

 

Bruno is a Research Associate at the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, Curtin University. His background in structural geology and geochemistry is employed to investigate the tectonic evolution of Precambrian terrains and mineral systems worldwide by integrating high-spatial resolution microstructural data with mineral isotope geochemistry and metamorphic petrology. Currently, his research is focused on developing new techniques like in situ Rb–Sr and oxygen isotopes in recrystallized micas to trace the pathways of metallogenic fluids within and around shear zones.

Website: Research group

Gideon Rosenbaum

University of Queensland

 

Gideon is a professor of structural geology and tectonics at the University of Queensland. His research focuses mainly on convergent plate boundary processes, such as trench migration, slab geometry, arc magmatism, and oroclinal bending. He studies both modern convergent plate boundary zones (e.g., Alpine-Mediterranean, Andes, Indonesia) and ancient orogenic belts (e.g., Tasmanides, Central Asian Orogenic Belt).

Website: University profile

Ioan Sanislav

James Cook University

 

Ioan is a field-based structural and economic geologist with a broad research interest in regional geology, tectonics, crustal growth, magmatic, and metamorphic processes and there roles in the formation and exploration for mineral deposits. He has extensive experience working in Archean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic terrains across five continents. Ioan frequently employs a range of laboratory techniques and analytical methods to complement his field observations. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Economic Geology Research Centre (EGRU) and the Resources Technology and Critical Mineral Trailblazer program at James Cook University.

Website: University profile

Maria Seton

University of Sydney

 

Details to come.

Website:

Dominique Tanner

University of Wollongong

 

Dom uses in situ mineral chemistry to investigate geological processes in magmatic and hydrothermal systems. By experimenting with new ways to study quartz at the microscale, Dom aims to support exploration for high-purity silica deposits, improve our understanding of subvolcanic processes, and contribute to public health strategies by reducing the risk of accelerated silicosis in workplaces.

Website: University profile

Andrew Tomkins

Monash University

 

Andy is interested in a wide variety of topics in Earth and planetary sciences. He tends to apply the principles of metamorphic petrology, as well as some structural geology and igneous petrology, to fields of geoscience where these principles have been somewhat neglected. This non-traditional application of petrology has allowed him to make unique contributions to the fields of economic geology and meteoritics/planetary science.

Website: University profile

Teresa Ubide

University of Queensland

 

Teresa is an Associate Professor in Igneous Petrology/Volcanology at The University of Queensland. She is an ARC Future Fellow and won the 2023 Anton Hales Medal (Australian Academy of Science). She develops high-resolution geochemical techniques to interrogate magmatic crystals and their carrier melts, providing a better understanding of magma transport and storage through the Earth’s upper mantle and crust. Her research constrains magmatic processes in space and time, with a particular focus on the drivers of volcanic eruptions and the processes that lead to the accumulation of metals that are critical for the energy transition.

Website: University profile

 

Silvia Volante

ETH Zürich

 

Silvia is an Oberassistant at the Structural Geology and Tectonics group, ETH Zürich. Her research interests revolve around applying multi-tool and multi-scale field-based approaches that integrate structural geology, igneous and metamorphic petrology, geochronology, geochemistry, geophysics, and tectonics, to investigate geological processes involved in crustal (de)formation (e.g., orogenic systems) during the Precambrian and the Phanerozoic. Currently, her research focuses on combining petrochronology with oxygen isotope geochemistry to constrain the interactions between metamorphic rocks and fluids in convergent tectonic settings.

Website: Research group

Roberto Weinberg

Monash University

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Simon Williams

University of Tasmania

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

Nicky Wright

University of Sydney

 

Nicky is a Research Fellow in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, where she works within the Earthbyte Group. Nicky received her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2018, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Research School of Earth Sciences from 2018 to 2021. Nicky is interested in the relationship and interaction between past changes in Earth's geography and climate at a variety of timescales. She has previously reconstructed how changes in plate tectonics and palaeobathymetry have influenced changes in long-term sea level and palaeo-ocean circulation during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, and her current research focuses on creating reconstructions of global palaeogeography.

Website: STA profile

Yanlu Xing

CSIRO

 

Yanlu is a geochemist and geologist, with his past and current work focusing on combining field geology, experimental and computational geochemistry in the study of fluid-mineral reactions during the formation of mineral ore deposits, applied to mineral exploration, innovative ore processing technologies, and geological carbon sequestration. Yanlu’s recent projects include optimising mineral carbonation through geochemical studies based on CSIRO CarbonLock FSP, and developing innovative in-situ mineral recovery methods. Yanlu received an ARC DECRA Fellowship in 2023 to investigate REE behaviour during fluid-rock interactions in the Earth's Crust to help explore for REE deposits in Australia and sustainable methods for their recovery.

Website: CSIRO profile

Greg Yaxley

Australian National University

 

Greg is an experimental petrologist at the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES) at ANU. His current research interests lie in deep volatile cycles of the earth, the cratonic mantle lithosphere, the petrogenesis and evolution of carbonatites and in all aspects of the geology and petrology of critical minerals. He is head of the Geochemistry Research Area at RSES and a Fellow of the Geological Society of Australia.

Website: University profile

Sabin Zahirovic

University of Sydney

 

Sabin Zahirovic is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney conducting research that focuses on regional and global plate tectonics, mantle convection, and paleogeography. His current work through an ARC DECRA Fellowship is exploring the rise and demise of major reef systems in Earth’s geological past. Sabin creates open-access community models and databases in Earth Science, which are used in a range of settings from high schools to university education, and research into geodynamics, biological evolution, and climate change.

Website: University profile

Ivan Zibra

Geological Survey of Western Australia

 

Since 2009, Ivan has been mapping and conducting structural studies in the Yilgarn Craton (Western Australia). His research is mainly focused on Archean tectonics, with a focus on the interaction between magmatism and regional deformation, and its implications for crustal evolution and mineral systems. His multidisciplinary approach integrates field data with microstructural, geochemical, metamorphic and isotopic data, with the aim of investigating the evolving tectonic styles of the Early Earth. Recently, he has been investigating the role of structural inheritance in the development of Archean to Mesozoic superposed structures along the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton.

Website: GSWA

 

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