ABOUT THE FRENCH-SWISS GEM ACADEMY
Dr. Laurent Massi completed his PhD studies on ‘Atomic-scale Defects in Brown and Hydrogen-rich Diamonds’ at the Department of Physics at Nantes University in France under the direction of Professor Emmanuel Fritsch. During his studies he also taught gemology in Paris at the French National Gemological Institute. Dr. Massi subsequently taught gemology and gave presentations at conferences in numerous countries all around the world.
With more than 20 years of experience in the Gems & Jewelry industry, Dr. Massi was the Director of the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS) Gem Laboratory and Gem School based in Bangkok - Thailand. He then completed his Graduate Gemologist (GG) studies at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) headquarters in Carlsbad, USA and then became the Director of the new GIA Thailand Campus located in Bangkok - Thailand.
Back to France Dr. Massi has been the head of the international gem academy AGAT (for ‘Academy of Applied & Technical Gemology’) located on the French Riviera, in Nice - France, as well as the co-founder of the French-Swiss Gem Academy (from the World Gem Foundation).
In addition to a variety of scientific and educational publications on different precious stones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and on rarer gemstones such as clinohumite, color-change bastnäsite and hibonite, one of the rarest gems on Earth, Dr. Massi traveled around the world in many mining areas and gem markets to collect samples and valuable information that will later be used in his lectures, teachings, fine art photomicrographs (as the ones displayed on this page) and NFTs.
ABOUT THE WORLD GEM FOUNDATION
The World Gem Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that was formed in 2015 with the mandate to provide quality and affordable gemmological training to students, jewellers and professional gemmologists.
Currently consisting of seventeen national and regional gem academies in the United Kingdom, Holland, the U.S, Canada, Spain, Belgium, France/Monaco/Switzerland, Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Kosovo, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Slovenia), East Africa (Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Somaliland, Southern Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), South Central Africa (Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa), West Africa (Ascension, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Togo, Tristan da Cunha), Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica; Belize and Panama), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname), the Caribbean (Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands (U.K.), Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curaçao (Netherlands), Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos), Sri Lanka and India. We plan to establish more academies around the world in 2023.