As reported in JCK‘s March issue, Ken Scarratt, former director for the American Gem Trade Association’s Gem Testing Center in New York, is back in Thailand as director for the Gemological Institute of America’s Bangkok research laboratory. (See Upfront Gems, “AGTA GTC Lab Hires Three Gemological All-Stars,” JCK, March 2005, p. 38) Scarratt returns to Bangkok where he was once director of the Asian Institute of Gemo-logical Sciences. The move also takes him back to his wife’s homeland.

Scarratt, who worked for GIA before, as a member of its New York Gem Trade Lab, has built a reputation as one of the industry’s leading research gemologists, first with Great Britain’s Gem Testing Lab.

According to GIA Gem Laboratory chief executive officer Tom Yonelunas, Scarratt will be charged with establishing the research facility in Bangkok. Scarratt will focus on the identification of current and new treatments of colored stones, along with the characterization of gem materials from existing and new gem sources. GIA Gem Lab Bangkok will operate strictly to support research. It will not provide laboratory services or issue GIA laboratory reports of any kind.