My name is Christian Mavris.

I am a "rock junkie" since I was 6 years old. My first collected rock was a gravel chunk coming from a yard near my parents' place. Them a bigger chunk (a grey, ugly limestone) followed.
Afterwards, I started collecting the issues of the mineral and gem collecting guide, in Italy. With time I learned more about minerals, the localities, how to distinguish and to evaluate them.
For me, being in the field was not a chance to catch some fresh air: it was the chance to find some rocks!!
This passion continued in a - more or less - discontinuous time span until the end of the high school.
Few months before finishing, I had to decide what to study. Many options, but which one to follow?
So, browsing on the web, I found a group of guys discussing about minerals. I could not believe it!! Someone loving rocks as much as I did!! I got in touch with some of them and I realized that my biggest passion was mineralogy.
I studied Geology, taking my MSc in Mineralogy and in 2011 I will finish my PhD in Soil Mineralogy.
And in the last 10 years, Mindat was a constant friend to rely on and grow up with...
I owe a lot to this site and to most of the people who contributed here.
Since March 2010 I have been appointed manager in Mindat and since then I can see how hard the staff works to keep things going smoothly.
A big 'thank you' to Jolyon and to all contributors.

"Mineralogically yours"
Christian Mavris