Dr. Cynthia Gilmour is a Microbial Ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD. Her research group studies the biogeochemistry of mercury in the environment, with an emphasis on the microbial mercury methylation process in sediments and soils. Major recent research programs included studies of mercury in the Florida Everglades, Chesapeake Bay and the adjoining continental shelf, and the METAALICUS whole-watershed mercury addition study at the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario. She has published more than 50 research papers in the subject area. She holds B.A. from Cornell University (1980) and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, through the Marine Estuarine and Environmental Sciences Program (1985). Her postdoctoral work was done at Harvard University in Ralph Mitchell’s group, through the School of Public Health’s Interdisciplinary Programs in Health. Dr. Gilmour has served on a number of advisory boards including the EPA Science Advisory Board, the San Francisco Bay Mercury Studies Program and the CBP’s STAC.