Gerard Francis Gilmore FRS[1] FRAS FInstP (born 7 November 1951) is Emeritus Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge.

[4][7][8][9] Gilmore was educated at St Bede's College, Christchurch and the University of Canterbury (both in New Zealand), where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1973.

He used the 0.61-metre telescope at Mount John University Observatory to monitor changes in the brightnesses of quasars in the southern hemisphere of the sky.

[10][11][12] With Pavel Kroupa and Christopher Tout, Gilmore determined the numbers of low-mass stars in the disc of the Galaxy, improving on previous measurements.

[5] Gilmore has had an important role in the design and scientific strategy of the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft that is measuring the positions, motions and brightnesses of millions of stars in the Galaxy.

As its leading UK proponent, Gilmore played a big role in selection of ESA's revolutionary Gaia mission.

He is the driving force behind the ESO-Gaia survey, which has over 250 co-investigators and will obtain spectra designed to complement data from Gaia.