Editorial Staff

Sally Magana, Ph.D., Technical Editor

Sally Magana joined Gems & Gemology as technical editor in 2006. As a chemical engineer who formerly specialized in the growth and characterization of CVD synthetic diamond, she brings her diverse scientific background to the journal.

Dr. Magana has a varied academic history. She first pursued a photojournalism degree at Western Kentucky University, a mere twenty minutes from Mammoth Cave and the epicenter of an extensive quantity of caves where she was an avid spelunker. After a few years, she felt compelled to switch to chemical engineering and transferred to the University of Louisville (U of L) in her hometown.

There she became fascinated by the alchemical aspects of synthetic diamond growth by CVD and chose to remain in the field long-term. After finishing her education at U of L, she started her Ph.D. work at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio with Prof. John Angus, one of the founders of CVD synthetic diamond, as her doctoral advisor. While at CWRU, she investigated ways of producing n-type conductive synthetic diamond, specifically by co-doping synthetic diamond with boron and sulfur. 

For two years she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. under the guidance of James Butler. She worked on several projects, including a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution to study the luminescent properties of the Hope Diamond, the Aurora Butterfly collection and other colored diamonds on permanent exhibit. That extraordinary opportunity introduced her to gem science. She chose to pursue gemology further, which naturally led to GIA and Gems & Gemology where she could merge her journalistic and scientific backgrounds.

She has made numerous presentations at several scientific conferences and has published (also as Sally Eaton) in Diamond and Related Materials, Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, chapters in several books on diamond, and several conference proceedings.

Her interests include writing, photography, and travel. She is married to Quetzalcoatl Magana and has two sons, Tenoch Johann and Adrian Cuauhtemoc.