Dr. James (Jim) Agnus Miller, 75, of Orinda died peacefully in his sleep on 3 October 2021 after a four-year battle against cancer. A well-respected member of The Combustion Institute, Miller did extensive research in combustion and physical chemistry authoring over 120 scientific publications.

Miller received a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1969 during which he was a coop student with Lockheed Aerospace Co in Palo Alto. He went on to Cornell University to obtain his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering where he met his wife of 50 years, Constance, who was a fellow student in the same program.

Miller then spent 36 years as a staff member of the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia National Laboratories. He retired from Sandia in 2010 and spent the next years traveling with his wife and continuing to contribute to the field of combustion.

During his career, Miller was a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia and was one of the principal authors of the program CHEMKIN. He was a Fellow of The Combustion Institute, The American Physical Society, and AAAS.  He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008. In 2006 he was awarded the Gold Medal from The Combustion Institute for “brilliant research in the field of combustion” and in 2007, The Journal of Physical Chemistry honored him with the James A. Miller Festschrift.

Read Miller’s obituaryto learn more about his life and work.  The combustion community will honor Dr. Miller in a future volume of Combustion and Flame.

The Combustion Institute honors Dr. James Miller’s accomplishments and the work of late scientific leaders who have made significant contributions for the advancement of many diverse communities around the world.