Donald G. Miller Research Materials, 1860-2003 (bulk 1956-1980) (MSS 754)

Donald Gabriel Miller was born October 29, 1927 in Oakland, California. After earning a B.S. in chemistry at UC Berkeley in 1949 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1952, he was employed as a chemist at the University of Louisville and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He also taught as an adjunct professor or visiting professor at various universities in the United States, France, Italy, and Australia. In 1956, he was hired as a chemist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he remained until 1992. Miller published more than 170 papers in physical chemistry, ballistics, and the history of science; one of his papers was referenced by chemist Lars Onsager in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Miller began studying the work of nineteenth century French physicist and philosopher of science Pierre Duhem (1861-1916) in 1957, corresponding with his daughter, Hélène Pierre-Duhem (1891-1974), and with Duhem's colleagues. In 1960, he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in France, where he returned frequently. Concerned that Duhem's letters, then owned by Pierre-Duhem, might become lost or destroyed, Miller applied for funding to create preservation copies of the correspondence. In 1966 he was awarded a grant from the University of California Academic Senate, sponsored by UC San Diego chemist Stanley L. Miller. Donald Miller's published articles on Duhem increased interest by historians in his work, and the Duhem correspondence was purchased by the Institut de France Académie des sciences in 1980.

In addition to his work in the physical sciences and the history of science, Miller was known as a civic activist. He served as mayor, city council member, and planning commission member in the city of Livermore, lobbying for reduced housing density, clean air, open space, and cultural resources. Miller was a member of the American Chemical Society, the Mathematics Association of America, Sigma Xi, the Association for Symbolic Logic, and the History of Science Dinner Club in Berkeley. He died on February 3, 2012 in Livermore, California.