Professor Victor Puchkov,
Director,
Institute of Geology,
Ufimian Scientific Centre,
RAS, Ufa,
Russia                                                                          August 17th, 2004

Dear Victor:
On behalf of all UNESCO-IGCP 453 participants in the recent field excursion in the southern Urals entitled "Arc-continent Collision in the Uralides" I want to take this opportunity to thank you for a marvelous and highly successful field trip. Your field trip attracted a truly international gathering of geoscientists (Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Spain, U. K., U. S. A. )as well as from various parts of Russia, proof on the international interest in the research being conducted at your institute. Everyone agrees that you did a great job of explaining the complicated geology of the Urals to us, and the outcrops we visited all had an important significance to the overall geotectonic framework. We really appreciated your ability to tell us the most important aspects of the geology.
It is great that your institute has such world-class geology nearby, and it is, to my knowledge, the best place in the world to view arc-continent collision processes, a truly natural laboratory Your own research work is obviously a key to the understanding of the Urals.
It was a tremendous field excursion, a fitting finale for our project. Once again, THANKS!!!! 

Best Regards,
Brendan Murphy

IGCP 453 co-leader Professor, Earth Sciences St. Francis Xavier University