Volume 2, Issue 16 November 2005
Berkeley's Scientific Legacy
Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science
On February 14, 1955, UC Berkeley established what would become a world-renowned hub for young scientists exploring the frontiers of research. Funded with $4 million in trust, the research would span all realms of scientific inquiry, from biology and chemistry to geophysics and mathematics. The President of the Advisory Board was to be none other than the President of the University him or herself, although that job has since been delegated to the UC Berkeley Chancellor. To date, the Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science has supported more than 800 scientists, including seven Nobel Prize winners and six Fields Medalists.
Adolph Miller
Adolph C. Miller was born in San Francisco in 1866 and attended the University of California. Upon graduation, he was awarded the prestigious Harvard Club Prize to support his graduate study there. At age 29, he married Mary Sprague, the daughter of a wealthy Chicago businessman. While the Millers resided in Washington DC, Adolph was not forgotten by Berkeley, and vice versa. In 1937, he was invited to deliver the first Bernard Moses Memorial lecture. Three years later, he received an honorary LL.D. degree. The honor included the following citation from UC Berkeley president Robert Gordon Sproul:
"Native son of California; graduate of this University, and the first head of its Department of Economics; for twenty years a member of the Federal Reserve Board, contributing in a unique and invaluable way to its deliberations through his keen mind, sound thinking, and profound mastery of economic theory."
In 1943, the Millers entered into a trust with the University to establish an institute "dedicated to the encouragement of creative thought and conduct of research and investigation in the field of pure science." In 1953, Adolph Miller passed away and more than $2 million was made available to fund the Institute. On October 14, 1955, the "Statement Establishing the Institute for Basic Research in Science" was approved by the Regents of the University. Two years later, Mary Miller died and an additional $2 million became available. The first appointments to the Miller Institute were announced in January 1957.
The Miller Institute will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year with a celebration at the University on December 9 and 10. An interdisciplinary symposium is planned with esteemed Miller Institute alumni presenting the latest thinking on nanoscience, biology in the twenty-first century, and cosmology and its connection to fundamental physics. While the Millers are gone, their support of basic science continues to keep Berkeley at the forefront of cutting-edge scientific research.