Los Alamos National Laboratory

In 1974, Miller joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, where he spent the next 27 years of his career.

During his tenure at LANL, Miller held a variety of research and leadership positions including deputy associate director for nuclear programs, associate laboratory director for energy programs, and deputy laboratory director for science and technology. Promoting diversity in the workplace was a key issue for Miller while at Los Alamos as well; in his capacity as Diversity Director, he encouraged the laboratory to recruit more minority scientists and acted as a mentor to other employees of color. Miller retired from LANL in 2001.

Concurrent with his career at LANL, Miller held appointments at several universities, including the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Michigan, and served on numerous national committees including the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee, the National Research Council's (NRC) Division of Earth and Life Sciences, the NRC's Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, and the NRC's Committee on Long-Term Environmental Quality Research and Development.^[4]

Assistant Secretary of Energy

Official portrait as Assistant Secretary

In 2009, Miller was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy under Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. During his Senate confirmation hearing, Miller remarked that nuclear power must play a key role in the country's energy strategy.^[5][6]

During his tenure as Assistant Secretary, Miller oversaw the negotiation of—and Presidential approval of—the Nuclear Reactor Loan Guarantee program in 2010, easing the way to raise private capital for new nuclear reactors. Miller also worked toward the creation of the Small Modular Reactor program, the establishment of the Nuclear Energy University Program, and the redirection of the country's research, development and demonstration plan for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste.

Current work

Since stepping down from the Assistant Secretary position in 2010, Miller has continued to focus on nuclear energy policy, reactor design and analysis, and radioactive waste management in a variety of leadership positions, including as the associate director of the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute at Texas A&M University, as an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, as the co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center Nuclear Initiative alongside former Senator Pete Domenici, and (until 2016) as a member of the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee (NEAC). From 2012 to 2016, Miller served as a "Distinguished TEES Professor" in the Texas A&M University System. Miller presently serves as Professor of Practice in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University and is affiliated with Kairos Power.