ABSTRACT
First he examined the interactions between the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and current economic and social transformations. In light of the session in his honour, Dr George Harlow (American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA) chronicled the history of his career, in which he built collections, organised exhibitions and performed geological fieldwork around the world while researching jade, ruby, etc. Pamir rubies formed at unusually low pressures (minimum of 1–1.2 kbar) and a temperature of approximately 760°C. Wim Vertriest (Gemological Institute of America [GIA], Bangkok, Thailand) and co-authors reviewed the identification of low-temperature heat treatment of gem corundum (i.e. up to about 1200°C, which starts causing damage to rutile ‘silk’ inclusions). In another presentation, Dr Dutrow and co-authors investigated the origin determination of Cu-bearing tourmaline using statistical analyses of LIBS and electron microprobe data.