The Post-Meritocracy Manifesto
Meritocracy is a founding principle of the open source movement, and the ideal of meritocracy is perpetuated throughout our field in the way people are recruited, hired, retained, promoted, and valued.
But meritocracy has consistently shown itself to mainly benefit those with privilege, to the exclusion of underrepresented people in technology. The idea of merit is in fact never clearly defined; rather, it seems to be a form of recognition, an acknowledgement that “this person is valuable insofar as they are like me.”
(If you are not familiar with criticisms of meritocracy, please refer to the resources on this page.)
It is time that we as an industry abandon the notion that merit is something that can be measured, can be pursued on equal terms by every individual, and can ever be distributed fairly.
What does a post-meritocracy world look like? It is founded on a core set of values and principles, an affirmation of belonging that applies to everyone who engages in the practice of software development.
Our Values
These core values and principles are:
- We do not believe that our value as human beings is intrinsically tied to our value as knowledge workers. Our professions do not define us; we are more than the work we do.
- We believe that interpersonal skills are at least as important as technical skills.
- We can add the most value as professionals by drawing on the diversity of our identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Homogeneity is an antipattern.
- We can be successful while leading rich, full lives. Our success and value is not dependent on exerting all of our energy on contributing to software.
- We have the obligation to use our positions of privilege, however tenuous, to improve the lives of others.
- We must make room for people who are not like us to enter our field and succeed there. This means not only inviting them in, but making sure that they are supported and empowered.
- We have an ethical responsibility to refuse to work on software that will negatively impact the well-being of other people.
- We acknowledge the value of all contributors as equal to the value of contributors who are engineers.
- We understand that working in our field is a privilege, not a right. The negative impact of toxic people in the workplace or the larger community is not offset by their technical contributions.
- We are devoted to practicing compassion and not contempt. We refuse to belittle other people because of their choices of tools, techniques, or languages.
- The field of software development embraces technical change, and is made better by also accepting social change.
- We strive to reflect our values in everything that we do. We recognize that values that are espoused but not practiced are not values at all.
Signatories
To add yourself as a signatory, open a PR in our Github repository.
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Coraline Ada Ehmke
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Aurynn Shaw
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Timothy Caleb Nordloh
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Nick Dickinson Wilde
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Dax Murray
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Franzi Trabold
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Kevin Laude
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Sareh Heidari
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Tim Chevalier
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Tobias Goeschel
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Samir Talwar
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Christoph Neuroth
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Sonia Gupta
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Steve Huff
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Brad Grzesiak
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Vrinda Malhotra
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Daniel Núñez
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Brad Fults
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Sophie Déziel
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Jennifer Lyn Parsons
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Jenna Charlton
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Kathy Heffern
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Jessica Kerr
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Danielle White
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Jordan Rose
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Joshua Zimmerman
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Rachel Chalmers
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Ryan Mitchell
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James Socol
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Jameson Hampton
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Paul Hinze
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Jacob Walker
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Greg Dunlap
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Leon Miller-Out
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Matthew Boeh
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Florian Gilcher
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Joseph Miller
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Marc Drummond
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Beth Debertin
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Bruno Albuquerque
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Henry Smith
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Lucas Moore
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Benjamin Kampmann
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Yuvi Panda
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Derek Pennycuff
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Gavin van Lelyveld
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Brittany McCullough
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Nat Dudley
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jo flynn
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Min Ragan-Kelley
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Michael Carius
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Jer Lance
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Alex O'Neal
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Steph Nagoski
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Mark Nicol
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Brion Vibber
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Paul Tyng
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Julian Simioni
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Eric Stiens
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Adrian Cheater
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Matt Boehm
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Klaus Purer
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Joshua Bartz
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Duilio Ruggiero
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Evelyn Klein
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Conrad Heiney
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Jeff Hoover
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Billie Alice Thompson
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sam raker
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Dave McPherson
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Carina C. Zona
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Jonathan Mezach
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Brent Miller
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Jacob Lukas
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Mark Nicol
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Guillaume Gay
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Benjamin Dumke-von der Ehe
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benjamin melançon
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Michael Cook
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Danielle Grace Jackson
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Guido Vilariño
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Dana Scheider
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Jennifer Konikowski
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Ricardo Yasuda
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Christoph Grabo
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Benjamin Lippi
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Frederick Wells
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Joe Carnahan
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Alex Kitchens
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Matt Beland
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Melody Horn
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Alex Wynter
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Aaron Weiss
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Brant Bobby
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Michael Hunger
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Carly Ho
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Nathan L. Walls
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Claudius Link
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Kai Dalgleish
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Mickie Betz
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Matt Mills
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Dave Latham
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Kate Taggart
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Brian Dorsey
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Rich Burroughs
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Erik Foss
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JoseLuis Torres
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Isabella Rebel
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Nick Morgan
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Madalyn Parker
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Nora Howard
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Katherine Prevost
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Claudius Link
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Hannah Evelyn Read
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Rich Siegel
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Addie Beseda
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Simon Welsh
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Boris Buegling
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Steve Malsam
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Emma Tsujimoto Cunningham
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Mark Mzyk
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Sam Whited
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Chris Kreussling
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Matthew Weitzel
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Moisis Langley Missailidis
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Eric Sipple
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Matt Siegel
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Alexis Moody
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Jon Yurek
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Kenny Bastani
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Logan Davis
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Eric Miller
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Sia Xiong
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Karl McCollester
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Guilmour Rossi
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Erin Atkinson
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Adam Duston
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Thorsten Brunzendorf
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Joshua Conner
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Greg Signal
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Celedonio Gracia
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Nathaniel J. Smith
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Alex M. White
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Si Jarvis
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Markus Decke
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Jason Lengstorf
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Kurtis Rainbolt-Greene
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Alberto Paz
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Adrian Forest
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Bren Brightwell
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Jonathan Turner
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Senthil V S
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Sam Collard
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Ricardo Paula Martins
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Sally Young
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Anivar Aravind
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Lucas Dohmen
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Corinna Baldauf
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Finley Spangenberg
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Wes Ruvalcaba
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Alex Basson
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Wes Mason
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Walker Lindley
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James Tindall
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Jeff Lembeck
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Ankit Khanal
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Avner Shanan
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savagejen
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Martin B Jetton
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Alan Melling
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Tiago Rodrigues
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Adam Yeats
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Kelly Brennan
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Joanna Lee
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Yonatan Miller
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Eric Valenzuela
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M Pacer
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Jessica Levine
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Daniel Jilg
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Andrew Aldridge
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Ryan Woodward
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Joe Lepper
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Madelyn Kasula
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Rick Altherr
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Panda Attwood
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Chris Ruppel
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Chelsea Troy
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Martin Pretorius
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Eric Kolb
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Molly White
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Matthew McMillion
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Alex Ferrando
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J. Ryan Stinnett
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Paige A.C. Berry
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Daniel Temme
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Lisa Lorenzin
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Cylithria Dubois
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Laura A. Ramos
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Rosa Richter
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Casey Helbling
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autumn grace
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Nicolai von Neudeck
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Chris Vandevelde
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George Guimarães
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André Arko
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Harlan Haskins
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Damien McKenna
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Steve Lewis
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Miah Johnson
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Jason Rodriguez
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Arnaud Huon
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Mx. Corey Frang
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Joseph Junker
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Zachary Spector
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Damian Stewart
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Stephanie Geerlings
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Eduardo Julian
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Bob Holt
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Len Smith
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Randal Bradakis
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Daniel Bolívar
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Kelvin Smith
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Guillaume Téchené
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Nivedit N
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Mel Chang
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Brad Olson
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Robbie McKinstry
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Julio Lira
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Tom Schaefer
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Arjun B
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Emanuil Tolev
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Samer Hassan
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Dana Mison
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Sam Kitajima-Kimbrel
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Tess Young
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Abhijeet Rao
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Will Buck
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Erik Gorka
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Anita Cox
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Jordan Burk
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Amber Taniuchi
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Adrienne L. Travis
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Dionna Amalie Glaze
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John K Sawers
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Zachary M. Train
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Filip Maj
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Jan Lehnardt
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Roberto Soundy
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Fermin Saez
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Eugenio Tisselli
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Ulrike Strommer
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Bryan Wilson
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Hannes Wyss
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Katarina Behrens
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Felipe Salazar
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Christopher Biggs
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Gerges Tannous
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Francesco Valerio Gianni
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Gerriet Backer
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Marius Gedminas
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Toni Rheker
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Kyle Adams
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Jane Nicholson
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April Leonard
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Blanca Garcia Gil
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Ulrike Strommer
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Lesley Cordero
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Josef / dasjo
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Tony Morris
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Jens Ayton
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Betsy Haibel
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Tim Plummer
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Laura Pfister
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Kevin Chu
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Ki Vi Emuort
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David Christensen
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Alice Crawford
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Helmut Hummel
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David Sullins
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Lalitha M.
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Chris Radcliff
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Lars Hupel
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Michael Schubert
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Pat Allan
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Wayne Broga
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Starla Scott
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Yann Robin
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Profpatsch
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Jessica Jordan
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Jess Muskin-Pierret
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Stevie Strickland
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Jelle Hermsen
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Martin Duvanel
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Drew P. Johnson
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Tosin Sanusi
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Iñaki Garay
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Josh Armitage
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Blake Thomas
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Elsa Gonsiorowski
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Luke Toop
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Markus Tacker
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Joe Ardent
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Martin Quinson
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Bruno Merino-Bailón
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Marko Schulz
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Benjamin Reitzammer
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Igor Galić
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Justine Hannequin
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Johnathan Nightingale
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Melissa Nightingale
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Brian Montana
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Esten Hurtle
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Keith Henry
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Luna Kang
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Larissa Brown Shapiro
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Jo Liss
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Jerad Gallinger
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Johann Hofmann
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Javier Cervantes Ponce
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Ross Grady
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Lowe Schmidt
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Emma C. Humphries
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Nicolas Chevobbe
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Jason M. Sullivan
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zoepage
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Ben Rolfe
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Sam Powers
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Ada Powers
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Bruno Girin
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Nick Doiron
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Erik Johnson
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Paul Brousseau
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Matthias 'moeffju' Bauer
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Clara G.S. Short
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Nicole Field
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Cary Hartline
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Emma Best
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Chris Mohr
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Sasha Romijn
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Kat Passen
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Steve Workman
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Eric Schultz
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Davide Casali
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Dorothea Salo
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Mike Pirnat
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Ashley Rose
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Aaron Marks
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Bhavika Tekwani
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Caitlin Wilks
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Elana Hashman
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Jacob Stoebel
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Rachel Carvalho
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Carlos Villela
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Alex McLean
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Sabrina Santos da Silva
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Gerald Squelart
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Shelly Bensal
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Gala Camacho
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Mike Agar
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Mark Emer Anderson II
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Sivakumar Kailasam
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Cariad Keigher
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Jen Hamilton
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Alex McCabe
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Rebecca Cran
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Mel Reams
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Nida Farrukh
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Pamela McA’Nulty
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Jörn Zaefferer
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François Conil
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Janani Jay
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Rodrigo Oliveira
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Savanni D'Gerinel
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Vishal Bhavsar
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Beth Menzies
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Luciano Ramalho
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Kerry Lazarus
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Ricardo Caval
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Charlie McIlwain
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Adem Budak
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Diego Centeno
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Ruby Sinreich
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Jessica Kianne
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Holly Stotelmyer
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Felipe Ignacio Noriega
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Bruno Lins
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Fernando Machado
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João Paulo L. F. Dias da Silva
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Ryan Julian
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Gabriela Andrade
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Robin Hunicke
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Grazi Mendes
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Cesar Palafox
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Lucas Mazza
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Jedd Parker
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Hunter Trujillo
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Dylan Martin
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Sean DMR
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Fernando Santana Felipe
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Jan-Christoph Borchardt
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Open Source Diversity Community
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Daniel Serodio
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Sarah Mei
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Jeff Day
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Aaron Harpole
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Meg Cassidy
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Mae Capozzi
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Duncan Lock
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Jared Cosulich
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Leonard G. Warden IV
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Vaibhav Gadodia
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Bronwyn R. Lewis
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Hernán Rodríguez Colmeiro
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Eric Eslinger
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Irving Reid
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Lenny Markus
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David Carlton
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Jace Chan
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Goulven Champenois
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Anthony Ricaud
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Martijn Verburg
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Marie-Cécile Paccard
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Vesa Laakso
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Ashleigh Lodge
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Daniel Lucas Silva da Silva
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Wagner Palacio
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Iván González Sáiz
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Lais Silva Gomes
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Allison Salmon
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Alfredo Segundo
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Guilherme Prestes
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Grace Petegorsky
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Florens Verschelde
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Jhoney Lopes
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Shannon Byrne
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Ricardo Antonio Duarte
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Stefan Kollenberg
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Narciso Braga Benigno
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Nick Colley
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Peter Long Strokes
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David C Lim
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Johannes Faigle
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Lena Reinhard
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Jason Olson
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Brian Tod
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Amy MacKinnon
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Thiago Araújo Silva
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Eduardo Stalinho
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Artur Rodrigues Rocha Neto
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James Sheldon
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Steve Streza
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Nathan Gerhart
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Toni Rheker
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Bill Atweh
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Jona Azizaj
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Cleyson Lima
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Ricardo Reis
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Philipp Haußleiter
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Annalies Vuong
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Micah Elizabeth Scott
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Shauna Keating
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Ashish Dixit
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Tarek Rached
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Matt Behrens
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Phil Kirkham
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Kelly Dunn
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Drew Hoover
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Joshua Jensen
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Karen Reilly
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Alexander Clark
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Jaime Lightfoot
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Patrick Michael Dixon
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Alexandre Martinez
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Hamza Y
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Pinaki Poddar
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Ryan Pearl
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Ana Sofia Pinho
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Danielle Kefford
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Paul Woolcock
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Phil Peble
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David LeGare
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Igor Ribeiro Sucupira
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Yan Laguna
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Andrew Gillard
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Luiz Fernando Vital
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Pedro Gaspar
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Hugh Spiller
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Mark A. Moser
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Nicholas Cronquist
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Camille Day
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Brian V. Hughes
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Stephen Foulkes
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Thiago Palma
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Tauan Queiroz Leiras
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Paula Paul
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Matt Keibler
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Cable Durham
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Rachel Gertz
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Eric Schiller
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Nikki Chau
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David Loyall
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Kenneth Love
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Pedro Pombeiro
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Renee Carmichael
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Peter Patnaik
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Catalina Alou Font
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Martin Meyerhoff
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Elad Mallel
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Martin Middleton
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Ada Young
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Victor Eduardo
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Geoff Gardner
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Robbie Harwood
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Gabriel Silva Pereira
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Sayan Chowdhury
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Tomas Radej
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Gomez Oatse
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Kathleen Burkhardt
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Moorthy@rcos
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Yaakov Preiger
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Frankie Guzikowski
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Arthur Gorr
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Carl Schmitt
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Ron Eglash
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Tom Prince
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Harish Pillay
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Guilherme Moura Ignácio
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Ingrid Gabrielly
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Isabel Boroni
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Lucas Leal Caparelli
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Gisely Alves Brandão
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Vitor Estima
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Cassio Lima
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Yogev Rabl
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Abby Fretz
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Max Zhang
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Josh West
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Letícia Monteiro
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Varun Santhanam
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Adam Grandquist
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Katie Simmons
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Ryan Holm
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Thomas Bradford
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Olya Royall
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Sydney Gregory
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Hayley Anderson
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abhishek vijra
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Rob Allen
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Phil Wheeler
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Matthew Schaeffer
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Gina Likins
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Casey Rosenthal
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Joe Grossberg
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Sebastian Böttger
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Leah E. Steinberg
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Jerliyah Craig
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Karen Cárcamo Fernández Veraud
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E. Madison Bray
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Patricia Torvalds
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Scott Hanselman
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Isabella Scalzi
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B.J. May
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Mike Auclair
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Alex Taylor
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Leah La Salla
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Lyrae Perry
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Colleen Potvin
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Leticia Figueira
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Juha Autero
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Mark Schall
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Brent Gaynor
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Jaymes Winger
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Gabriela Rodríguez Berón
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Akhmaq Al-Himar
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Peter Bevan
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David Llop Vila
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Jared Hardy
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Andrea d0k Ceccarelil
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Guy Jarvis
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Filippo Gangi Dino
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Dirkjan Ochtman
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Mohamed Abbas
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Kakilangit
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Joachim Hofer
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Rein Henrichs
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Frank Oelschlager
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Johana Strand McCutchen
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Jack Preston
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Jim Frisby
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Robert Collins
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Ondřej Surý
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Weston Triemstra
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Igor Padoim
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Mae Lewis
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Maurício Eugênio
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Amelia Laumann
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Mitchell Pomery
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Muhammed Farseen CK
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Aster Haven
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Noelia Ruiz Martínez
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Nicole Rifkin
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Jenah Blitz
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Joe LeBlanc
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Michael Nolan
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Ori Hoch
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Julien Deswaef
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Kyle Simpson (getify)
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Bertrand Camara
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Andreas Loukakis
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Stian Soiland-Reyes
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Michael R. Crusoe
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Peter van Heusden
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Leandro Facchinetti
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Luiz Irber
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Mirco Sanguineti
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Dylan Carlson
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Dave Hansen-Lange
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Riley Shaw
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Rogério Senna
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Alessio Treglia
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Varun J
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Wendy David Bujalski
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Johnathan Kupferer
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SENPAI Molecular Dynamics
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Mariana Meireles
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Sam Fangman
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Trevor Taylor
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Gus Rodriguez
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Reese Armstrong