Raquel Alonso-Perez is the Curator of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, Harvard University (MGMH). Raquel received her B.S. in geology from the University of Granada, Spain, and her Ph.D. in Earth and Material Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, and graduated as gemologist by the Gemological Association of Great Britain (GEM-A). Her teaching strengths are mineralogy and gemology and her main research interests are evolved from understanding Earth forming processes to the origin of gem deposits by using a dual approach of non-destructive analytical techniques. As Curator of the MGMH Raquel is responsible for access to, teaching, research, public education, and continued development of the Earth Science Collections. Raquel is on the advisory board of the Association for the Study of Jewelry and related Arts, the Women Jewelry Association- Boston Chapter and Associate Editor of the Gemological Association of Great Britain (GEM-A).