Milan, Italy - January 8, 2010 - CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, will begin a new tradition at its upcoming 2010 congress, i.e. the organization of a gemmological mini conference that will be an integral part of this and future CIBJO congresses.

This year's gemmological mini conference is named "Ruby Day," as it will be exclusively dedicated to presentations and discussions on the research findings of ruby, the red gemstone variety of the mineral corundum.  The event will take place on Friday February 19th, from 13:00 to 16:00 hours at Hall 5 of the International Congress Centre, at the Messe Muenchen. (Click here for directions).

The Ruby Day is the initiative of Dr. Margherita Superchi, a renowned Italian gemmologist who serves as president of the CIBJO Gemmological Commission. Dr. Superchi tabled the idea to hold an annual gemmological mini conference as part of the CIBJO Congress last year in Turkey. Superchi said her motivation to organize the event was to assure that gemmologists, jewellers and other industry professionals have an opportunity to discuss recent gemstone research and offer gemmological updates at CIBJO congresses, as many of the subjects that concern CIBJO and its commissions are closely related to gemmology.

"The pace of events in the jewellery industry is increasing from year to year. While in the past a new gemstone treatment came around every few years or so, it seems that today they are becoming more proliferate with time," Superchi noted. "Also, when new gemstone mining sources are found, gemmologists are eager to get access to the new material, to conduct and publish their research as fast as they can. That promises to make for good and informative subject matter for our mini conferences!" she added.

Superchi promised the Ruby Day conference programme would not only be fast paced but also varied. "Each presentation is guaranteed to take less than 15 minutes and have 10 minutes for questions, discussion and some debate," she said. Since the topics of these presentations are closely related, one may throw light upon another and the organizers expect that this format of presentations and discussions will prove to be educational and highly satisfying, to the organizers, the speakers and the public.

The Ruby Day programme - speakers list and presentations topics - follows below. For participants who are NOT participating in the CIBJO congress, a symbolic entrance fee will be charged. To register, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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Ruby Day Programme
Friday February 19, 2010, 01:00 p.m. - 04.00 p.m.

Wolfgang Hofmeister, Dean of the Faculty for Chemistry, Pharmacy and Geosciences of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.
Topic:  Mineralogy of ruby deposits connecting North-Vietnam and South-China

Pornsawat Wathanakul, Academic Adviser of the Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (GIT); Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Topic:Low temperature treatment of Mong Hsu ruby

Kenneth Scarratt, Managing Director, South East Asia & Director, GIA Laboratory,  Bangkok, Thailand.
Topic:Rubies from Mozambique, before and after treatment

Adolf Peretti, Director of the GRSLaboratories, Geneva, Switzerland
Topic:Occurrence and identification of rubies from Winza, Tanzania

Claudio Milisenda, Director of the Deutsche Stiftung fur Edelstein Forschung (DSEF) -- the German Gem Lab, Idar Oberstein, Germany. 
Topic:Recent observations on synthetic rubies

Michael S. Krzemnicki, Director of the Schweizerische Stiftung für Edelstein-Forschung (SSEF) - Swiss Gemmological Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
Topic:  Heating and diffusion processes on rubies: characteristics, detection and declaration

Elena Gambini, Head of Gem Materials Department, Centro Informazione e Servizi Gemmologici (CISGEM) - Center for Information and Services on Gemmology, Milan, Italy
Topic: Glass in rubies: various cases, their detection and declaration