Dr. Gilman assumed the position of Founding Director of the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced Studies (ORCAS) in December 2004. ORCAS is a new consortium of research universities, government, industry, and non-governmental organizations focused on critical issues with strong science and technology content. ORCAS Founding Members are Battelle Memorial Institute, Duke University, Florida State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Oak Ridge Associated University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Tennessee, University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

In November 2001, Dr. Gilman was nominated by President Bush to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development which is the scientific and technological arm of the Environmental Protection Agency. After his confirmation in that position, he was also named Science Advisor to the Agency. Before this nomination, he was Director of Policy Planning for Celera Genomics in Rockville, Maryland, a bioinformation and drug discovery company known for having decoded the human genome.

Prior to joining Celera, Dr. Gilman was the Executive Director of the life sciences and agriculture divisions of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering; the Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Natural Resources, Energy, and Science; and, Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Energy. Gilman has 13 years of experience working on the staff of the United States Senate. He began that time as a Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the office of Senator Pete V. Domenici.

Dr. Gilman matriculated at Kenyon College in Ohio and received his A.B., M. A., and Ph.D. degrees in ecology and evolutionary biology from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.