Au: Origins Unearthed
Date and Time
Free Hybrid Lecture
Speakers:
Elsie M. Sunderland, Fred Kavli Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Ashley Alexis McFarlane, Jewelry Designer and Founder, Omi Woods
Erich Adam Moreira Lima, Federal Criminal Forensic Expert and Head of the Forensic Geology Service, Brazilian Federal Police
Pippa Small, Jewelry Designer and Founder, Pippa Small Jewellery
Greg Valerio, Jeweler and Activist, Founder of PeaceGold
Program moderated by journalist Melanie Grant and Raquel Alonso-Perez, curator of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum, Harvard University.
Advance registration is required.
A new Exhibit Spotlight, Au: Origins Unearthed, in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery of the Harvard Museum of Natural History, examines the global impacts of gold extraction—from illegal artisanal mining and mercury contamination to emerging efforts to promote traceability and responsible sourcing.
This interdisciplinary program opens with a look at scientific research on mercury contamination caused by illegal gold mining in Amazonian rivers, exploring its effects on Indigenous communities, waterways, soils, and forests. A panel discussion will follow, featuring jewelry designers, activists, and legal experts working in Colombia, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together, they will consider pathways toward more ethical and responsible mining, systems that enable companies and consumers to trace gold to its source, and tools for identifying illegal mining.
A reception will follow in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Free event parking is available with registration. Register by November 11 to receive parking registration instructions.
Presented by the Mineralogical & Geological Museum at Harvard University, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.
About the Speakers
Elsie Sunderland is the Fred Kavli Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, where she leads the Biogeochemistry of Global Contaminants Research Group. Her research examines how chemical pollutants interact with ecosystems and affect living organisms. Her team analyzes pollutant exposure pathways to identify the processes that most strongly influence contaminant accumulation in organisms. For more than 20 years, Sunderland has collaborated with Indigenous groups, nongovernmental organizations, and government agencies in the US and abroad. Her work has informed risk management strategies for chemical exposures associated with coal-fired power plants and hydroelectric dams, as well as global regulation of mercury and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Sunderland received her BSc from McGill University and PhD from Simon Fraser University.
Ashley Alexis McFarlane is a designer and the founder of Omi Woods, a jewelry company that honors her Jamaican roots and connection to Africana history through fine jewelry. An alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, where she minored in Africana Studies, McFarlane creates pieces that blend ancestry, symbolism, and contemporary craftsmanship. Handcrafted with conflict-free fine metals and fairly sourced African gold, the pieces ground luxury in responsible practices and traceable sourcing. Drawing from a wide cultural archive—from cowrie shells to the geometric designs of Akan goldweights—McFarlane translates historical symbols into heirloom pieces intended to be worn across generations. Omi Woods has been featured in Vogue, Essence, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications. Her current collection, A Legend Carved in Stone, explores the life and legacy of boxing great Muhammad Ali.
Erich Adam Moreira Lima is a Federal Criminal Forensic Expert and Head of the Forensic Geology Service at the Brazilian Federal Police, where he manages a nationwide team of approximately 50 geology and mining engineering experts across various cities in Brazil. He serves as Scientific Coordinator of the Ouro Alvo Program and oversees forensic casework related to illegal mining, gemstones, tailings dam disasters, and water pollution. His work focuses on forensic geosciences, mineral traceability, and strategic intelligence to combat environmental and organized crime. For more than a decade, Lima has collaborated with governmental agencies, law enforcement entities, and academic research groups across Brazil and abroad. Lima received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geology from the University of Brasília (UnB) and an MBA in data science from the University of São Paulo (USP).
Pippa Small is an ethical jewelry brand, creating talismans for modern life. Pippa holds an MA in Medical Anthropology, cultivating her interest in human rights amongst minorities, Indigenous peoples and tribal groups through collaborations with grassroots organisations in Borneo, Thailand and India, amongst others. Pippa has won numerous awards for social responsibility, is an ambassador of the human rights organization Survival International, was awarded an MBE in 2013 for her ethical jewellery and charity work, the Walpole Award for the most socially responsible luxury brand of the year in 2016 and the Green Award for Sustainability by Town & Country Magazine in 2018. Her first shop opened in Notting Hill, London in 2007, followed soon after by a shop in Santa Monica, California.
Greg Valerio is a pioneering British jeweler, social entrepreneur, activist, and a leading voice in the global ethical jewelry movement. For more than three decades, he has worked to transform the industry by advocating for human rights, environmental justice, and transparent supply chains. In 2016, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his contributions to Fairtrade and his work supporting artisanal miners and their families. He founded PeaceGold, an initiative that seeks to transform conflict minerals into “peace minerals” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and owns Valerio Jewellery, which offers ethically sourced gold and diamonds.
MODERATORS
Raquel Alonso-Perez is Curator of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard University. She is responsible for access to, teaching, research, public education, and continued development of the world-class Earth Science collections at Harvard University. She received her BS in geology from the University of Granada, Spain, and her PhD in Earth Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. Her teaching strengths are optical mineralogy and gemology and her main research interests are the geology and mineralogy of gem deposits.
Melanie Grant is a journalist, author, art director and curator specializing in the art and economics of jewellery. Over 25 years, she has worked for the Times, Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, BBC and The Economist, where she spent 16 years overseeing luxury content for 1843 Magazine. She served as Executive Director of the Responsible Jewellery Council from 2023 to 2025 and remains an Executive Consultant. Her books include Coveted, The Jewelry Book and Journey of a Jeweler. A leading authority on jewelry, she writes for international publications, lectures at major cultural and academic institutions, and serves on the boards of New York Jewelry Week, the Black in Jewelry Coalition, Responsible Steel and ISEAL, the global membership organisation for credible sustainability standards.