Dr. Alessandra Costanzo, carried her undergraduate degree in Geology at the University of Calabria and after a short Leonardo da Vinci Project in Ireland she completed her PhD at the National University of Ireland in Galway in 2007. After 5 years of postdoctoral experience carried out between Galway, the University of Barcelona and the Natural History Museum in London she became Technical officer in Galway in 2012 and she is now Senior Research Technician at the School of Natural Sciences in NUIG. In this position she also assists with several research contracts for the global Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Sector. Her primary research interests are in the area of mineralogy, petrologypetrogenesis of carbonatites, economic geology, geofluids and gemmology. Up to date she produced 25 scientific peer-reviewed Public - No restrictionations, 42 scientific reports for the private sector and presented research at more than 50 conferences. Sources of grant funding obtained include: Italian government; Irish University sector, EU funding agencies such as Marie Curie. She trained as a Gemmologist and became Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in 2011 and further specialized in Diamond grading and identification the following year. In 2013 she studied Science of Valuation and obtained the Certificate of Appraisal Theory at the Institute of Registered Valuers, National Association of Goldsmiths, London. She also completed the Coloured Stones Grading Course offered by GEM-A and this year the course on Assessing Mounted Diamonds at the National Association of Jewellers. She is now director and lecturer of the Diploma in Scientific Studies in Gemmology in NUIG.

Fluid inclusion studies of oil and gas deposits and economic mineral deposits.Mineralogy, petrology and petrogenesis of carbonatites and related rocks.Geomicrobiology.Gemmology; Inclusions in gemstones.