Speakers

Laurent is co-founder of the Sustainable Pearls project. He holds a PhD from the University of Basel (Switzerland). His PhD research explored sustainability and traceability issues in pearl farming. He has been working for a number of years on issues of natural resource management and sustainable sourcing of gemstone materials. He also co-founded The Gemstones and Sustainable Development Knowledge Hub. He has authored articles in all major gemmological journals. His work has been reported by National Geographic, BBC, FastCoExist, Inhorgenta and Tages Anzeiger. He holds a Master in Earth Sciences from Basel University and is a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. He is Head of Special Initiatives at the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF and a lecturer in gemmology at University of Lausanne & ELSTE, as well as being an affiliated associate professor at the University of Delaware (USA).