GIA Names Cathy Aulick Winner of Gianmaria Buccellati Award, Retires Prize

Catherine “Cathy” Aulick, a GIA Carlsbad graduate, received the ninth and final Gianmaria Buccellati Foundation Award for Excellence in Jewelry Design at the GIA Alumni Collective Night at the Museum on February 6, 2026, at the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum in Tucson during the closing day of the AGTA 2026 GemFair. The presentation concluded a run of awards that began in 2018 and, this year, marked the program’s retirement.

Aulick’s winning entry was a hand-rendered design that pairs gold with Ethiopian opal and peridot, selected from a field of 12 finalists. The finalists represented GIA Schools of Gemology and Jewelry Arts in Carlsbad, London, Mumbai, New York and Taiwan, a global spread the award has used each year to surface student work across GIA campuses.

Reflecting on her craft at the ceremony, Aulick said, “I want to thank the Buccellati Foundation and GIA for the honor of this award. Hand rendering has given me a new and beautiful language for communicating my designs.” The press materials note that Aulick will travel to Italy to meet with a representative of the Gianmaria Buccellati Foundation as a next step following her win.

GIA Chief Learning Officer Cathryn Ramirez framed the partnership with Buccellati as a sustained effort to spotlight student designers globally, stating, “It’s been a pleasure collaborating with the Gianmaria Buccellati Foundation and presenting this award each year – recognizing all the wonderful talent in design among GIA students globally.” The institute also confirmed that it is moving toward a refreshed format for student design recognition: “GIA is currently planning its new design competition and details will be shared in the near future.”

Some coverage and image captions on outlets included a 2025 label for the award, but the press release reproduced in CARLSBAD, CA, and reporting tied the presentation to February 6, 2026, making this ceremony the ninth and final presentation in the series that began in 2018. Rapaport and Jewellery Outlook noted the same sequence even where a caption or line used an alternate year label.

The Buccellati Foundation prize closes after nine iterations, leaving a clear next chapter: Aulick’s Italy visit and GIA’s promise of a new design competition. For students and young designers who watched the nine-year program elevate hand-rendered ideas into international recognition, the immediate outcome is concrete — one winner, a hand-rendered gold design set with Ethiopian opal and peridot, and the knowledge that GIA plans to continue commissioning platforms for emerging talent.