Federico Pezzotta, mineralogy curator since 1998 at the Natural History Museum of Milan, Italy, graduated in geological sciences and got a doctorate degree in isotope geochemistry in 1992 at the University of Milan and the CNR of Pisa. He was honored in 2003 with the name of the new mineral and new gemstone pezzottaite, from Madagascar. Since 2013, he is the Chairman of the IMA-Museum Commission. As an expert in mineralogy and petrology of granitic and gem-bearing pegmatites, Federico visited, performed field work, and studied several gem bearing pegmatite fields in Brazil, Italy, Madagascar, Malawi, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Ukraine.
IMA2018 represents a unique opportunity for updating, consolidating and relaunch the international community of mineralogical museum curators. It would also be a great opportunity for going on in developing interdisciplinary relationships between museology and the different fields of mineralogical research and application.
The mineral collections and their archives held in museums, large and small, across the World can provide a wealth of actual and potential material for researchers and academics studying mineralogy, petrology, meteoritics and historical mineralogy. We are seeking presentations (oral and poster) covering the topics such as historical mineralogy, museum-based mineralogical research, conservation of museum collections, museum databases and other related topics to provide a forum for museum based mineralogists and museum curators to exchange ideas and to offer fertile ground for discussing and exploring potential future cross-institutional and cross-discipline research projects.