Dr. Gabriela Farfan is the Coralyn Whitney Curator of Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In her role as the curator-in-charge of the National Gem Collection, she is honored to be a steward of this legendary collection and looks forward to building the collection, creating wonderful exhibits, making specimens accessible to researchers and other museums, and using the collection to inspire future generations of gem scientists and enthusiasts. Like many gem and mineral aficionados, she began collecting gems and minerals at an early age—which led her to a career in mineralogy. Over the past 20+ years, she has visited over 30 mines across the US, Canada, and Chile and has enjoyed meeting miners, gem artists, and scientists during these adventures. After receiving a B.S. degree in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University, she earned her PhD in Geochemistry from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. As a research curator and mineralogist, she studies the crystal structures and chemistry of minerals formed under varying conditions in order to answer questions in environmental mineralogy, biomineralization, and gem science. Her research primarily focuses on how aquatic biocarbonates (like coral skeletons, mollusk shells, and pearls) record shifting aquatic environments using crystallography coupled with trace element and isotope geochemistry, for which she was recently awarded the 2024 Doris Curtis Award for Outstanding Woman in Science by the Geological Society of America. Beyond her research and curatorial work, she enjoys mentoring the next generation of mineralogists from the undergraduate to postdoctoral levels.