Description: Senior scientist, Dr. Cynthia Gilmour, is the Director of the Microbial Ecology Lab at the Smithsonian's Environmental Research Center where studies microbes that produce methylmercury in order to reduce the risk of mercury pollution. #Groundbreaker
Description: Dr. Jun Wen, botanist, evolutionary biologist and research curator, National Museum of Natural History, is an expert on the systematics and biogeography of the ginseng family (Araliaceae) and the grape family (Vitaceae). #Groundbreaker
Description: Dr. Jennifer Whitten, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies of the National Air & Space Museum, studies radar data to understand the surface geology of Venus, Mars, and the Moon. #Groundbreaker
Description: Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Marine Scientist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History researches the ecology and evolution of coral reefs using molecular genetics, field studies, and mathematical modeling. #Groundbreaker
Description: Botanist and suffragette, Mary Agnes Chase, led the Smithsonian's Herbarium, was the eminent expert on grasses, and at the age of 93, published a 3-volume index of U.S. grasses with over 80,000 species. #Groundbreaker