Press Release

Ensuring Accurate Results at GIA’s Laboratory


GIA Gem Laboratory in Japan
PHOTO BY ERIC WELCH. © GIA.
Color grading in a GIA diamond grading laboratory.

GIA’s next Gemstone Gathering is March 25 in Bangkok

BANGKOK – March 20, 2015 – From the time a gemstone is submitted to GIA until it’s returned, the laboratory applies a series of tests to ensure accurate conclusions when it comes to analysis or grading results and detecting any treatments or synthetics. Nicholas Sturman, GIA’s senior manager of pearl identification, will discuss the various ways GIA laboratory staff prepare equipment and use master stone sets to obtain the results shown on reports during GIA’s (Gemological Institute of America) next Gemstone Gathering in Bangkok on March 25.
 
Sturman’s presentation will look at references, master stone sets and standards in gemology. He will also cover additional information included on reports such as color calls, fluorescence, and in the case of pearls, luster, surface and matching, which all need to be agreed upon by gemologists after comparison against master sets of various types.
 
Sturman has more than 25 years of experience in the detailed examination of pearls. He specializes in the separation of natural pearls from all types of cultured pearls at GIA’s laboratory in Bangkok. Sturman obtained his Fellowship (FGA) and Diamond Membership (DGA) from The Gemmological Association of Great Britain and spent more than 16 years studying pearls in the Kingdom of Bahrain as the gemological advisor to the Bahrain Government’s Gem and Pearl Testing Laboratory. He writes for various gemological publications and has given presentations in the Middle East and several other countries, including the U.K., Switzerland and Thailand.
 
GIA’s Gemstone Gathering, a free event, begins at 6 p.m. on March 25 in the “Crowne Room 1-3” on the 21st floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Lumpini Park in Bangkok.

About GIA

An independent nonprofit organization, GIA (Gemological Institute of America), established in 1931, is recognized as the world’s foremost authority in gemology. GIA invented the famous 4Cs of Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight in the early 1950s and in 1953, created the International Diamond Grading System™ which, today, is recognized by virtually every professional jeweler in the world.
 
Through research, education, gemological laboratory services, and instrument development, the Institute is dedicated to ensuring the public trust in gems and jewelry by upholding the highest standards of integrity, academics, science, and professionalism.