Dr. Laurent Cartier (University of Lausanne) and Lynda Lawson (University of Queensland), both part of the Gemhub’s core team, are delighted to have the opportunity to mentor Herizo ( Zo ) Harimalala Tsiverisoa as an intern. This internship is one of the final courses in the University of Melbourne’s prestigious Masters in Development Studies.
Zo is a geologist, gemstone training specialist and a lapidary trainer. She worked as the head of ‘Lapidary and Jewellery’ department of the ‘Institut de Gemmologie de Madagascar’ for 12 years. She is now completing her Master’s Degree and is a leading Australian Awards Africa scholar.
During her internship with GemHub, she will be assisting us with the creation of materials for our Website on the geology of different gem deposits (in simple language) and also on the lapidary skills required for stone cutting. This aligns with our vision for the Gem Hub where we seek to provide openly available educational material by summarizing existing research.
She will also reflect on some of the reasons why so little value addition is done in the country of origin of our most precious gemstones. She will draw some conclusions from her work in lapidary in Madagascar, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania.
Zo brings an absolutely unique perspective to Gemhub as a reflective practitioner who has thought deeply about development and sustainability issues.
Watch out for blogs from Zo on the Gemhub website.