William Hughes Miller

William Hughes Miller (born March 16, 1941, Kosciusko, Mississippi) is an American professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading researcher in the field of theoretical chemistry.

Miller is known for his development of semiclassical methods for treating chemical dynamics.

From 1989 to 1993, he served as chair of the chemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley, and since 1999 he has been the Kenneth S. Pitzer Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley.

Miller was the 2007 recipient of the Welch Award in Chemistry.

He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

In 2011 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Miller was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) of London in 2015.

His nomination reads:

"Professor Miller's papers over the last 45 years have essentially defined the field of theoretical chemical dynamics. His seminal contributions include a comprehensive semi-classical theory of atomic and molecular collisions, an elegant theory of electronically non-adiabatic processes in which the nuclear and electronic motions are treated on an equal footing, a highly accurate semi-classical "instanton" theory of deep quantum tunnelling events, and the definitive exact quantum mechanical theory of chemical reaction rates. These fundamental developments are at the root of the agreement between theory and experiment that we are now accustomed to seeing in chemical reaction dynamics, and the basis of essentially all modern theoretical research in the area."