Kenneth Miller

Kenneth R. Miller received his Ph. D. at the University of Colorado, 1974. He is a Professor of Biology at Brown University, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, & Biochemistry. He is interested in the detailed relationships of structure and function in biological membranes. One of the principal experimental systems which his lab has used is to photosynthetic membrane. By using the freeze-etching technique, metal replicas can be prepared for the electron microscope which capture the fine details of membrane structure. These can be correlated with the polypeptide and lipid composition of the membrane. His research has also begun to investigate structure-function relationships in plasmodesmata, the junctions that link plant cells. Using the freeze-etching technique they have prepared high-resolution images of these junctions. In the next few months he expects to be able to follow the movement of macromolecules from cell to cell through the junction at the resolution level of the electron microscope. Dr. Miller has co-authored three textbooks on biology with Joseph Levine. He has authored or co-authored several articles, as well as an article entitled "Life's Grand Design" for Technology Review in 1994, an additional article for Discover magazine, entitled "Whither the Y" in 1995, and a review of Michael Behe's "The Black Box" for Creation/Evolution in 1996.