A specialist in environmental and patrimonial mineralogy, François Farges teaches at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris and at Stanford University. His fascination for stones has led him down many paths: following the legendary “Blue Diamond of the Crown of France” (or “Hope Diamond”), which had disappeared; or giant crystals in the Chihuahua desert, in the north of Mexico.

His knowledge of the most cutting-edge methods has allowed him to study synchrotron radiation and conduct detailed studies on environmental mineralogy or the nanomineralogy of transition metals. His research has been widely published in scientific journals in France and the United States. An honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France, he has received numerous distinctions, including the Hawley medal in Canada (2007), as well as the Gübelin Prize (2009). In 2010, he published a historic novel Le Diamant Bleu, which retraced the results of his investigations into this mythical jewel.