First Mediterranean Gemmological and Jewellery Conference in Athens to unfold next month

The debut edition of the Mediterranean Gemmological and Jewellery Conference (MGC) is slated in Athens, Greece, will also be significant for leading industry personalities who would be attending. Dr. Brad Cann, a researcher of De Beers Technologies UK, who will present a paper on "Fluorescence imaging of CVD synthetic samples and natural diamonds." Cann joins a cast of other prestigious scientists and gemologists who are headlining the inaugural conference.

The MGC speakers include - Dr. Thomas Hainschwang (Lichtenstein), Francesca Peretti (Switzerland), Branko Deljanin (Canada), Wolf Kuehn (Canada), Dr. Joe C.C. Yuan (Taiwan), Dr. Brad Cann (UK), John Chapman (Australia) and Gail Brett Levine (USA).

The conference is slated between June 27 and 28th. The topics at this first MGC in Athens include - production, gemmological characteristics and value of Argyle coloured diamonds; testing and identification of melee synthetic diamonds and pearls; an update on the production of synthetic HPHT and CVD diamonds; examination of the characteristics of Mozambique rubies compared to Burma's rubies, and a discussion on the impact of the term "Pigeon Blood" on the value of high quality rubies; screening of "Trip to Mogok," a GRS documentary on gem mining in Mogok; a round table discussion on synthetic diamonds that includes an update on the breakthrough in the production and identification techniques of synthetic diamonds, with top experts in the production and the identification of synthetic diamonds answering questions from the audience.

Apart from knowledge sharing, the conference would also conduct a workshop organized by CGL-GRS on the use of a standard instruments and advanced instruments in detecting 50 natural, HPHT-grown, CVD-grown and treated diamonds. Participation at the event is expected to be a global mix including Austria, Algeria, Canada, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the USA. There will also be an "MGC Poster Competition" in which participants can submit their reations based on subjects like related to gemmology, jewellery, education and retail. Sponsors of the inaugural conference are OGI (Israel), CERTILINE (Italy) and HRA (Canada). A guided tour of Athens, scheduled for June 29, is included in the conference fee.