Dr. Barbara Smigel, PhD, GG | Gemology

Dr. Barbara Smigel has lived a life inspired by the joy of teaching. Her passion for receiving and sharing the gift of knowledge has led her through natural transitions from one new discovery to the next.

In 1990, Dr. Smigel was already twenty five years into a career as an educator, and was a professor at the College of Southern Nevada, teaching General Biology and Environmental Science. By chance, she picked up a coffee table book on crystals, and was immediately taken with their beauty, symmetry and composition. As has happened to many of us, Barbara caught the collector bug. She began a collection of faceted stones and cabochons, her passion for gemstones ever growing. After some time, Barbara began to wonder if the prices she was paying for her collector pieces were in line with market value, and even if what she was buying was truly the stone it was claimed to be. A search for answers led her to the GIA and its Graduate Colored Stones Diploma Program, which she completed via correspondence. In 1998, after attending the GIA lab classes in her hometown of Las Vegas, Barbara received her Colored Stone Diploma; a few years later, Barbara would complete the entire program and receive her Graduate Gemologist diploma from GIA.

With her diploma in hand and the confidence derived from learning, Barbara immersed herself further into the world of gems. Barbara describes the Vegas gemstone scene as being split between the worlds of high fashion jewelry, and the agate-jasper bolo tie wearing crowd; she threw in with the latter. After visiting a local gem club, Barbara approached a veteran rock hound and asked if he would teach her how to facet. After a bit of cajoling, he agreed teach Barbara the basics. Barbara learned through doing, and after starting with glass, synthetic sapphire and less expensive rough, she worked up to fancy cuts and art carvings.

After finding that the internet was an untapped market for gem sales at the time, Barbara began to sell her creations with the help of International Gem Society founder Donald Clark. After a year, Barbara set out on her own and created Artistic Colored Stones (ACStones.com) and ran the site for over ten years, featuring her own designs as well as the work of others such as Barry Bridgestock, a fellow JEA member who took over ACStones in 2008.

Barbara retired as a biology professor in 2001 with Professor Emeritus status, but the teaching instinct refused to leave her. She approached the college with an offer to teach gemology, and was met with skepticism about the academic merit of such a program. After pointing the doubters to Dr. Jill Banfield’s gemology course at UC Berkeley, they gave in and Barbara began teaching Geology 115, Introduction to Gemology. She taught the course for a few years before converting it to an online course in 2005, still available through the College of Southern Nevada. Barbara also decided to make the lectures and essays which comprise the course free to the public. Her love for teaching has created a drive within Barbara to share all she can with those who love to learn.

Recently, Barbara has been asked to develop a non-academic gemology course for a local community education program. Always driven by the urge to teach, Barbara has also transitioned another hobby into a new business, and is currently teaching courses in gun safety and use at the Las Vegas based A Calculated Response. Barbara holds several certifications, including the NRA’s highest pistol marksmanship award: Distinguished Expert.