Elisabeth is the author of the foremost book on Pearls. Her education as gemmologist started at the Institute for gemstone research in Idar-Oberstein under Prof. Schlossmacher, then in the United Kingdom and the Gemological Institute of America. 1967 Elisabeth received the Tully medal as Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.
After several years of practical work as gemmologist with mining companies, jewellers and institutions of the jewellery industry, she founded her own gemstone laboratory in Hamburg in 1976, which was renamed in 1994 into Gemmologisches Institut Hamburg.
Elisabeth Strack travels extensively and gives lectures and seminars in Germany and abroad. She has written many articles and sofar, she has published three books; the first edition of her pearl book was published in 1982 and is now available in English.
A number of articles from her quarterly newsletter "Der Strack-Kurier" have been added to the German part of Gemmology World