Russell Shor, a veteran industry journalist and longtime staff editor and contributor to JCK, has joined the Gemological Institute of America as senior industry analyst.

Shor will be part of the team that publishes Gems & Gemology, GIA’s award-winning quarterly. He also will contribute to various other GIA publications, as well as work with the Institute’s education, research, development, and marketing departments on numerous industry issues affecting GIA.

“GIA is delighted to welcome on board a person who is as knowledgeable and experienced as Russ is,” says GIA president Bill Boyajian.

Shor was most recently editor-in-chief of GemKey magazine and GemKey.com. Before that, from 1995 to 1998, he was editor of New York Diamonds, part of the JCK International Publishing Group. He also reported on diamonds for JCK from 1980 to 1995 and authored the 1993 book Connections: A History of the Diamond Trade and Its People. He has won three Jesse H. Neal Awards for business journalism and five first-place awards for reporting from the New York Business Press Association.

“GIA has a lot of expertise in the technical and scientific end of the industry, but it always helps to get input from the people who are out there trading goods every day,” Shor says.