Visit to Bell Baxter Secondary School
Presentation of James Gregory Medal at Lecture
Prof. Kenneth Millar and guests at the evening dinner/discussion
Biography
Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. He did his undergraduate work at Brown, graduating in 1970. He earned his Ph.D. in 1974 at the University of Colorado, and spent six years teaching at Harvard University before returning to Brown. He is a cell biologist, and chairs the Education Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology. He serves as an advisor on life sciences to the News Hour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs, and in 2006 was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2005 he was presented with the Presidential Citation of the American Institute for Biological Sciences for distinguished contributions to the biological sciences. In December of 2006 he received the Public Service Award from the American Society for Cell Biology.
Miller’s research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 60 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL and Nature, as well as leading popular sources such as Natural History and Scientific American. Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of three different high school and college biology textbooks used by millions of students throughout the United States and other countries.
One of Miller’s principal interests is the public understanding of evolution. He has written a number of articles defending the scientific integrity of evolution, answering challenges such as “intelligent design”, and he served as lead witness in the 2005 trial on evolution and intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania. His popular book, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, addresses the scientific status of evolutionary theory and its relationship to religious views of nature.
