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MILLER: |
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Joel
Miller, department of chemistry, University
of Utah |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
kind of science do you do? |
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MILLER: |
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I
do chemistry of materials. Projects
that scan all over making new materials
as well as understanding the fundamental
organic as well as inorganic. |
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ASPIRE: |
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Is
it research, theory, or experimental? |
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MILLER: |
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It's mostly experimental as opposed
to theoretical. We do actually make
new materials and we do actually physical
measurements on these materials to study
their chemical and physical properties. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
makes your science important? |
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MILLER: |
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The
reader I suppose. The importance of
the science is that it's on the leading
edge of making new materials and in
particularly our materials are making
magnetic materials which have a lot
of it commercial importance in today's
society. There's lots of magnets out
and there's a lot of need for magnets
and making a new class of magnetic materials
plays a big role in development of new
technologies that might be useful to
society. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
made you decide to go into the field
you study? |
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MILLER: |
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It
was sort of evolutionary. I started
of as sort of as a synthetic organic
metallic chemist and was evolved with
linear chain, conducting materials which
evolved into polymeric conducting materials
which other people have studied and
I had this strange idea one day to make
magnets instead of conducting materials
and so we devise some experiments to
test the plausibility of this and we
pleased by the results that in fact
we could make magnetic materials from
molecules. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
kind of academic background did you
have? |
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MILLER: |
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My
academic background is basically a synthetic
inorganic chemistry, As a background
the physical properties have evolved
through the years with collaborations
with physicists most notably with Arthur
Erapstine with State university where
we met when we were both at the Zerox
corporation many years ago and have
maintained a stronger collaboration
since then. They evolved from conducting
organic materials to the magnetic materials.
So I learned a lot about the magnetism
and the physical properties from individuals
like him. |
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ASPIRE: |
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How
did you come to the U of U? |
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MILLER: |
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An
opportunity presented itself when there
was an opening and I applied here after
ten years of research at the Dupack
Laboratories, they were down-phasing
research or de-focusing on research
and I wanted to maintain the research
presence that I had in this particular
area and this was a good opportunity
to be industrial like to come back at
the risk of finding sufficient resources
from government agencies and to support
this research and we've been very successful
since then. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
do you like most about your job? |
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MILLER: |
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The
research end of the job. I enjoy the
teaching end of the job. The thing that
I dislike the most is actually writing
the exams and grading exams but it's
a necessary job that we have to do. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
hobbies do you have outside of science? |
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MILLER: |
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Very
little time for hobbies but mostly a
little photography and everything else
I play around with photographs and do
digital photographs. |
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ASPIRE: |
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What
kind of advice would you give to an
aspiring scientist? |
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MILLER: |
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The
interest of what your doing and work
hard at it. Keep your eyes open for
new unexpected developments that can
lead your way and a lot of excitement
that can lead your research in life. |
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ASPIRE: |
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Alright,
thank you for your time. |
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MILLER: |
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Ok. |
