Edward Rau is a captain in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. His current duties are focused on biomedical facility sustainability initiatives and directing the mercury reduction campaign of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In 1984, he transferred to the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, and has since served as an environmental health officer in various positions, primarily working in areas of pollution prevention and hazardous waste management. He has also conducted research on thermal inactivation of scrapie, a disease of livestock caused by an agent similar to the one causing mad cow disease.

Rau has a bachelor's degree in biology and a M.S. in environmental and occupational health sciences from California State University at Northridge, and a graduate certificate in hazardous materials management from the University of California, Davis.

• The NIH's "Mad as a Hatter?" Campaign - Protecting People and the Environment from Mercury (September 28, 2007)
  This contribution was made with the assistance of Charles Blumberg, architect in the Division of Environmental Protection (DEP) at NIH, and the Director of DEP William K. Floyd.