Bern university receives 29,000 rough diamonds for research
Friday 16th October 2026 on 18:30 in
Switzerland
The University of Bern has received about 29,000 rough diamonds for research and teaching, in what SRF reported is the world’s largest collection dedicated to those purposes. Jeffrey W. Harris and his wife, Francesca Harris, donated the collection, known as the Harris Diamond Collection.
The uncut stones have relatively little market value and do not sparkle like polished diamonds. Their average value is about 8.25 Swiss francs each. But their inclusions, such as high-density fluids and minerals trapped inside as the diamonds formed, make them valuable to researchers.
“Gem-quality diamonds are not particularly interesting for research,” Suzette Timmerman, an assistant professor at the University of Bern’s Institute of Geology, told Swiss public broadcaster RTS. Gem diamonds contain no impurities, while research diamonds generally have inclusions that can provide clues about the planet’s history.
The university has specialised equipment and methods for studying diamonds, including a cutting machine and a device for crushing them. Timmerman is researching the carbon contained in diamonds, including how much carbon that enters the atmosphere eventually returns to Earth’s mantle. The inclusions could also help researchers investigate the minerals deep inside Earth and how continents formed.
The diamonds were made available to Harris by the London Diamond Trading Company for scientific research. Their original donation documents record each transfer. The stones come from Africa, South America, North America, Asia and Oceania, and all have certification under the Kimberley Process, an international system intended to prevent trade in conflict diamonds.
The process, which took effect in 2003, requires official certificates of origin. It has been criticised for defining conflict diamonds narrowly, covering only stones used to finance civil wars. As a result, Russia, described by SRF as the world’s leading diamond-producing country, is not covered despite its war in Ukraine.
Researchers estimate that examining the entire collection could take 200 to 300 years.