GIA, De Beers to talk lab-grown diamonds in Basel

Carlsbad, Calif.--Three leading research scientists from the Gemological Institute of America and De Beers Technologies UK will speak about lab-grown (synthetic) diamonds during GIA GemFest Basel in Switzerland later this month.

Scheduled for Sunday, March 22, the panel will be moderated by the GIA’s Tom Moses and feature Simon Lawson, head of Technologies UK for De Beers, and GIA’s Director of Research and Development Wuyi Wang.

The event will begin at 5 p.m. in the Montreal Auditorium at the Congress Center Basel, followed by a reception at 6.

The panel will cover the latest research on synthetic diamonds and their identification as well as how GIA and De Beers are facing the challenges brought on by potential non-disclosure. A question-and-answer session will immediately follow.

Lawson has 20 years of experience at De Beers, researching the growth and characterization of synthetic diamonds, and also has played a key part developing the company’s verification instruments that are used to identity synthetic diamonds.

Before joining the company, he was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship and spent four years at the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials in Japan. He also has a doctorate in optical spectroscopy of diamonds from King’s College in London and a bachelor’s in physics.

Wang joined the GIA in 2000, and now has more than 20 years of experience in diamond geochemistry and the treatments of diamonds and other gems.

He has been published in many gemological and geological journals and has been recognized with a number of honors, including the Richard T. Liddicoat Journalism Award from the American Gem Society, and the Dr. Edward J. Gübelin Most Valuable Article Award for a piece in GIA’s Gems & Gemology scientific journal.

He also holds a doctorate in geology from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and a bachelor’s in geology from Beijing University in China.

Free registration for GemFest Basel 2015 is now open here.