Randy Miller
Faculty
- Email: rmmiller@csuchico.edu
- Phone: 530-898-5259
About
Randy Miller was born on Nov. 6, 1959 in Morton, Illinois. He attended Illinois State University where he participated in undergraduate research programs with Dr. Michael Kurz (organic) and Dr. Cheryl Stevenson (physical). He also had three different internships at The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan working in latexes and resins, central research, and bioproducts. He graduated with a BS in chemistry with honors in 1981. He pursued graduate work at the University of California at Davis working with Dr. Dino Tinti on low temperature spectroscopy of small inorganic complexes. During his graduate career he received a number of teaching awards including a campuswide Outstanding Teaching Assistant award. He received his PhD in 1987. Miller continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Ken Spears at Northwestern University working on picosecond laser studies of solvent effects on photoionization reactions and electron transfer reactions in proteins.
In 1988, Miller joined the faculty at California State University, Chico. He has taught a wide range of courses including general chemistry for applied sciences, general chemistry, quantitative analysis, instrumental analysis, physical chemistry, and physical chemistry lab. Most recently he has worked with colleagues in the department, most notably Dr. David Ball, to develop and implement a new integrated laboratory sequence to replace the traditional physical, analytical, inorganic, and advanced organic laboratories. His research has continued in the use spectroscopy to probe solvent effects on simple reactions. He has constructed a small Linux cluster for performing molecular modeling studies using open-source and commercial software products. He is also involved in educational studies aimed at evaluating the correlation of laboratory modifications and overall student learning and success in general chemistry.
In fall 2020, Miller moved from his position as department chair into the role of interim associate dean for the College of Natural Sciences.
