Dr. Lore Kiefert is a gemmologist with over 25 years working experience in several gemmological laboratories.
Dr. Kiefert was first exposed to gemmology when she started studying Mineralogy in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1981 and completed her Master’s thesis on the origin of sapphires in 1987. Not long after, she moved to Australia. There she pursued a different field of research: Mineralogical and Chemical Composition of Desert Dust. This work earned her a PhD in 1996.
Leaving Australia for Switzerland in 1994, Dr. Kiefert joined the SSEF Swiss Gemmological Institute as Deputy Director and later became Director of the Coloured Stones Department. During her time at the SSEF, in 1998, she completed her FGA Diploma. In 2005, Dr. Kiefert moved to New York to head the AGTA Gemmological Testing Center as Laboratory Director. Later, in October 2009, Dr. Kiefert returned to Switzerland to join the Gubelin Gem Lab as Chief Gemmologist.
Dr. Kiefert has authored and co-authored numerous publications in gemmological and scientific journals, as well as chapters in textbooks such as the Handbook of Raman Spectroscopy. She regularly delivers gemmological lectures at conferences worldwide and has co-organised two gemmological conferences in Switzerland and the USA. Dr. Kiefert is also on the editorial review board of Gems & Gemology and the Journal of Gemmology, and represented first AGTA-GTC, then the Gübelin Gem Lab at the LMHC meetings (lmhc-gemmology.org).
Most recently, Dr. Kiefert co-authored a textbook in a series of books addressing Art Historians and Archaeologists (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030354480).
In June 2017, Dr. Kiefert was rewarded a temporary Professorship at one of the most prestigious Universities in China, Tongji University in Shanghai. She was also awarded the Visiting Professor status at the same University.