![]() ![]() Some years ago I was also introduced to a much more specialized microscopy method by my good friend and microscopy mentor John Koivula, who is a highly accomplished photomicrographer and microscopist. As for lighting, gemologists would use a wide variety of lighting conditions including brightfield, darkfield, polarized light, and oblique fiber optic illumination, the latter of which is probably the most versatile and useful when examining gemstones. Gems would be considered large samples by most microscopy standards, so in order to have any significant depth of field a stereo microscope is the way to go. Generally, gemologists would use a lower power stereo microscope for the types of samples we examine. Additionally, we also use microscopy to examine gems for diagnostic inclusions, which can provide information about what a gem material is, if it has been treated in some way, and potentially the geographic origin of that particular gem. Due to the high value of the gems we study, we rely on non-destructive testing to measure the physical properties of unknown gem materials. Gemology is primarily an observational science. Or, you might find me writing up some microscopic observation for publication in GIA’s journal, Gems and Gemology, where I am a section editor for the Microworld column. When I’m not working on client stones, I’m generally staring down the oculars of my microscope or working on a research project that may involve characterizing a new gem material, like the recent one I worked on about a new deposit of pink gem diaspore from Afghanistan. In that regard, the variety of gemstones that I might examine daily is anything but ordinary. On any given day at GIA, I could be working with something as ordinary as identifying a piece of glass that someone mistakenly thought was a natural diamond or I might examine a large, top quality sapphire from the iconic Kashmir deposit in India worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Producing this report generally involves identifying what type of stone a submitted gem is, and would also include making determinations about the natural or synthetic origin of the gem, if it was artificially improved by any sort of treatment and potentially identifying the geographic origin of the gem material. We provide a service to the gem and jewelry industry by issuing unbiased independent third party reports on gemstones. Today I am the manager of the Colored Stone department for the GIA Carlsbad and New York laboratories. After completing their gemology program, I applied for a job at GIA and was hired as a diamond grader, transferring after a year into the Colored Stone department. In that moment, I decided that’s exactly what I would do after I finished my undergraduate studies in geology. ![]() In that journal was an advertisement for the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), where I learned it was possible to become a gemologist as a career. ![]() That resulted in me browsing through a copy of Lapidary Journal, a publication for gem and jewelry enthusiasts. #UNIVERSAL TYPE CLIENT BLUE DIAMOND HOW TO#While working there, I taught myself how to cut gemstones, which quickly became a new hobby. I really owe him a lot for helping to point my career in the right direction.ĭuring summer months, I worked at a local tourist gem mine called Emerald Village. Allan eventually asked me if I would like to major in geology as I seemed to be developing an interest in minerals. He helped me identify some of the many mineral specimens that were my grandfather’s. When I was eighteen, I inherited a substantial rock and mineral collection from my grandfather who was an avid “rock hound.” I was studying at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, USA, and would meet with the geology department chair, Dr. ZEISS Nanoscale and Correlative Analysis. ![]()
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