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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

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

Stephen Centrella

University of Western Australia

 

Stephen a research fellow at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western Australia. His research aims at understanding all processes and mechanisms associated with fluid-rock interactions from deep (lower crust) to superficial rock samples (diagenetic conditions). I developed an approach applicable to different types of fluid-mediated rock transformations that relies on compositional maps and more significantly, applicable at various scales. For the last years, I have been focused in the metasomatism related to sedimentary basins and associated mineralization.

Website: University profile

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

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

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

 

Pat’s research focuses on the study of volcanic systems, especially in the Precambrian, to address questions on petrology, tectonics and to aid mineral exploration. Over the past 10 years he has applied his expertise in physical volcanology to the study of Archean and Paleoproterozoic greenstone belts with a keen interest on differences across the A-P boundary. Pat’s projects are supported by industry partners, geological surveys and the Australian Research Council. Pat also teaches an annual Volcanology and Resources short-course in Merimbula (NSW) designed primarily for industry geologists.

Website: University profile

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

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

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/

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

 

Maria Seton is a marine geoscientist with expertise in global and regional tectonics and geodynamics. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney and part of the EarthByte Group. Maria was awarded her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2005, an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009 and an ARC Future Fellowship in 2013. She was a recipient of the Dorothy Hill Medal from the Australian Academy of Science in 2014. Maria’s research focusses on using the marine record to understand global to regional plate motions, and from there understand the relationship between deep Earth and surface processes and the role of tectonics in modulating Earth's long-term climate. While much of her research is global in scale and scope, she has a particular interest in the tectonic, geodynamic and climatic evolution of the SW Pacific and submerged continent of Zealandia.

Website:

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

Simon Williams

University of Tasmania

 

Details coming soon.

Website:

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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