Dr. Stephen Miller

Short Biography

In 1994 Stephen (Steve) A. Miller received coterminal B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from Stanford University, where Robert M. Waymouth served as his undergraduate and M.S. Thesis advisor. He then earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1999 with John E. Bercaw before conducting postdoctoral research with (eventual) Nobel Laureate Richard R. Schrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 2000–2001. He held the position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University from 2001 until 2007, when he became an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Member of the Butler Polymer Research Laboratory at the University of Florida. In 2011, he was elected to the Global Young Academy and has been an alumnus member since 2016. He was promoted to Professor in 2020. His primary research efforts target the synthesis of biorenewable and degradable polymers that mimic petroleum-based plastics. These polymers are generally amenable to biodegradation or even water-degradation. Computational methods have unraveled unusual polymerization and depolymerization chemistry, especially hydrolysis under environmentally-relevant conditions. More recent computational efforts have engendered Long Covalent Bond Theory, which upends the dogmatic reliance on bond lengths prescribed by covalent radii.