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Miller (Donald G.) Research Materials
MSS 0754
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Donald G. Miller Research Materials
Creator:
Miller, Donald Gabriel (1927-2012)
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0754
Physical Description:
1.2 Linear feet
(2 archives boxes, 1 card file box)
Date (inclusive): 1860-2003 (bulk 1956-1980)
Abstract: Research materials of Donald Gabriel Miller (1927-2012), an American physical chemist and science historian. The collection
includes correspondence, notes, writings, photographs, interview transcripts and sound recordings regarding European and American
physicists and chemists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
Research materials of Donald Gabriel Miller (1927-2012), an American physical chemist and science historian. The collection
includes correspondence, notes, writings, photographs, interview transcripts and sound recordings regarding European and American
physicists and chemists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The correspondence is in French and English.
Arranged in four series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS, 3) RESEARCH PROJECTS, and 4) SOUND RECORDINGS.
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.
Donald G. Miller Research Materials. MSS 754. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquired 2013
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Original audio recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Miller, Donald Gabriel (1927-2012) -- Archives
Duhem, Hélène -- Correspondence
Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie, 1861-1916 -- Correspondence