Professor Miller’s research focuses on the creation of tools that enable the design and selection of structural materials. Much of Miller’s work is at the experiment/model interface, where he and his students have designed experiments to probe material state and behaviors on multiple size scales. A recent emphasis is the use of synchrotron x-rays and in-situ mechanical loading to understand the crystal level mechanical state of alloys during deformation – including monotonic loading and fatigue. Results from these experiments – which have been conducted on copper, aluminum, beryllium and titanium alloys – are enabling improved understanding of how micromechanical stress states evolve during plastic deformation and, eventually how damage such as a fatigue crack initiates. Miller is also a collaborator on a new data repository framework and virtual specimen creation methodology. The overall objective of this new digital environment is to enable and facilitate material design. Data from Miller’s diffraction-based experiments exist side by side with crystal based-simulation results – enabling the comparisons and iterations associated with the design process.

After graduating from the University of Colorado with a B.A. in Geology in 1979, Miller spent 6 years as a professional athlete, playing offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns (1979-1983) and the Denver Gold (1984,1985). During the football off seasons Miller worked as a petroleum geologist until 1986 when he returned to the Colorado School of Mines majoring in Mechanical Engineering. As a graduate student at Georgia Tech, he received a Glenn fellowship and a Georgia Tech Excellence in Teaching Award; he was also named the 1993 outstanding graduating Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He spent the summer of 1991 as part of Sandia National Laboratory's Outstanding Summer Student Program, working in the Applied Mechanics Division at Livermore. Miller joined the Cornell faculty in 1994. Miller was inducted into the Georgia Tech. - Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni in 1995 and was also named a Lilly teaching fellow that year. He received the 1995-96 D. G. Shepherd Teaching Prize, which is awarded annually to the most outstanding teacher in the Sibley School. Miller was awarded an NSF Career Grant in 1997 and attended the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 1999. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society for Testing and Materials, ASM International, American Society of Engineering Education, the American Academy of Mechanics. He is also a member of the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) and Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology.