Anthony J. Nikischer
Tony is the founder and current owner of Excalibur Mineral Company, likely the largest and most well-known provider of rare mineral species in the U.S., currently celebrating its twenty-sixth year in business. He majored in geology at The City College of New York and also holds a degree in Managerial Science from Manhattan College. He did post-graduate work at The University of Michigan and studied X-Ray Microscopy at Lehigh University while completing a successful career as General Manager and Controller of a major U.S. utility. In 1993, he purchased the assets of his major competitor, the Cureton Mineral Company, of Tucson, Arizona, and merged the inventories of the two firms. Over 200,000 specimens currently reside in the Excalibur warehouse in Peekskill, NY. In 1996, he opened an analytical services division for Excalibur and has co-authored articles appearing in various professional journals such as the European Journal of Mineralogy and Applied Spectroscopy.
Jeffrey G. Weissman
Jeff is an advanced amateur mineral collector who studied mineralogy, materials science, and engineering at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and subsequently completed his doctoral work in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has an extensive background in research at major industrial laboratory facilities and has been involved in synthesizing and characterizing materials for use as catalysts in chemical processes. Jeff is also a semi-professional photographer, creating and selling custom fine-art black and white photographs for the decorator market. He started the CD project in 1997, using his mineralogy background and skills in photography and computing to produce the Photographic Guide to Mineral Species, intending to provide a visual record of minerals to complement currently available text-only references.