Executive Chairman Richard Baker will take over the role as rumors swirl that a bankruptcy filing is imminent for the troubled retailer.
GSI Offers Online Lab-Grown Diamond Course
The online course will cover the history of lab-grown diamonds, growth identification, detection, and more.

New York—Lab-grown diamonds have been the talk of the town for a while.
Gemological Science International is offering a new online education course, “Laboratory-Grown Diamond Essentials,” to learn more about them.
“It is imperative that the jewelry industry has the ability to communicate about laboratory-grown diamonds confidently and with transparency,” Chief Learning Officer Alethea Inns said in a press release about the course.
Following a soft launch of the course, GSI found it was a good fit for those in the industry without a gemological or laboratory background, like retailers and wholesalers, a company spokesperson said.
The course covers the history of lab-grown diamonds, growth and production methods, industry definitions and terminology, disclosure, the 4Cs for lab-growns, identification, and detection.
The cost of the course is $100.
“There are many nuances when it comes to lab-grown diamonds; from their growth methods and treatments, to understanding the various inclusions, color undertones and other factors, it’s not exactly the same as natural diamonds,” noted Debbie Azar, president and co-founder of GSI.
Its team has graded and identified hundreds of thousands of laboratory-grown diamonds, GSI said. It opened a facility in New York in 2018 dedicated exclusively to lab-grown diamonds.
GSI said its researchers and scientists have made “notable discoveries” in lab-grown diamond identification, such as finding man-made sapphire melee set among natural diamonds in a piece of jewelry in June 2019.
GSI announced in March its LGX Lab Grown Diamond Report would list the growth method and any post-growth treatments or enhancements.
Founded in New York City in 2005, GSI has expanded to 13 gemological laboratory facilities across four continents.
To learn more about its course offerings, email edu@gemscience.net.
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