The “Madison Declaration on Mercury Pollution” reflects the consensus of more than 1,100 scientists at the eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant that “three times more mercury now falls from the sky than before the industrial revolution 200 years ago.” Dr. William F. Fitzgerald, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences, Emeritus, at the University of Connecticut and leading mercury expert, is one of the scientists warning that mercury pollution is a serious global threat and that there is a serious need to understand mercury cycling in the marine environment.
While little is known about the behavior of mercury in marine ecosystems and the methylmercury contamination of marine fishes, health risks posed by mercury-contaminated fish warrant a general dietary warning to the public. At the same time, methylmercury levels in fish-eating birds and mammals in some parts of the world are reaching toxic levels. Fitzgerald’s research, which has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency, has focused on mercury in ecosystems ranging from Long Island Sound to the open ocean.
Considered one of the foremost experts on the chemistry of mercury from an oceanographic and environmental perspective, Fitzgerald also explores mercury in terrestrial systems that include tundra lakes and watersheds of arctic Alaska. He was the 2011 recipient of the Kathryn R. Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award in Mercury Research.
Dr. Fitzgerald was born in Boston of Irish immigrant parents and grew up near Fenway Park in one of the original culturally diverse neighborhoods where everyone took care of their neighbors. That was a time, he says, “when we thought Boston was the hub of the universe and nobody dreamed of leaving.” Fitzgerald tells the story about his high school days hanging out at the Honey Donut Shop when a recent college graduate, an all-state athlete and academic, came to say goodbye before going off to his dream job of teaching in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fitzgerald says he wondered what would happen to him, if that was where top high school and college students ended up.
Despite his interest in the outdoors, Fitzgerald didn’t leave Boston for college, but studied chemistry at Boston College. When, as a senior he asked the department chair about geochemistry, which would have allowed him to pursue his dream of doing chemistry in the field, he was told there was no future in it. So, he went on to a master’s program in organic chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross. As a “city boy” inspired by the romance of doing science at sea he took an entry level chemical position at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Later he enrolled at MIT just as they were starting the Joint Program in Oceanography, Applied Ocean Science, and Engineering program with WHOI. When he heard a talk by Edward Goldberg from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, describing the industrial poisoning from methylmercury and its devastating consequences to the fishing community in Minamata, Japan, his professional life changed and he decided to study mercury. As a beginning professor with NSF support and funding from the University of Connecticut, he started one of the first clean labs devoted to the study of mercury and other metals in the ocean.
Professor Fitzgerald is living the dream that he had as a student at Boston College. In the company of students and colleagues, he has developed sampling analytical techniques and led major environmental studies to understand how much of the mercury is natural, how much is anthropogenic, and what biogeochemical processes and reactions are leading to the accumulation of methylmercury in fish and other biota.
Although he is officially retired from teaching, he doesn’t believe that he will ever stop working on mercury-related projects. He says that he enjoys the people, the research, and teaching students in his quest to understand more about mercury in the world, and he is flattered that one of the two underwater autonomous vehicles collecting data in Long Island Sound is named “Bill” after him.
Because Dr. Fitzgerald is “retired,” he will be able to spend a significant amount of time next fall as the 2012 Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, helping to teach an oceanography course for science students. We are excited for the opportunity to connect a class directly to the conference and to involve the Rydell Professor in that process.
For more information about the 48th Nobel Conference, go online to gustavus.edu/nobel.
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