Hugh Richard Miller (1943-2023)

Dick Miller was the first faculty member in astronomy at Georgia State University (GSU), where he helped build a successful PhD graduate program. He advised some 14 young scientists in research related to rapid photometric variability of Active Galactic Nuclei. Dick served at NASA as Mission Scientist for two space shuttle missions and the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. His dedication to physics and astronomy made a lasting impact upon his students and colleagues at GSU.

Astronomers in Atlanta and beyond have lost a longtime colleague and friend, Dick Miller, who passed away due to illness on November 3, 2023. Dick was a faculty member at Georgia State University where he championed the growth of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and its graduate program. He was a dedicated observational astronomer and a pioneer in the exploration of the rapid flux variations found in the outflows of Active Galactic Nuclei.

Dick’s career began at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, where he met and married his wife Beverly Brumfield Miller. He received a B.S. (1965) in physics and math, and then he pursued studies in physics at the University of Florida where he received an M.S. (1969) and Ph.D. (1970).

Dick joined GSU's Department of Physics in 1970, a year after Georgia State College was promoted to university status. He had just earned his doctorate from the University of Florida, under the direction of Prof. Alex Smith, characterizing Jupiter's decametric radio emission. Joe Hadley, the long-time chairman of the GSU Department of Physics, decided to increase credit hours through courses in astronomy. Significantly, Joe always maintained that astronomy should be taught by astronomers, and Dick's classroom success quickly verified that wisdom. As a result, Joe soon hired David Wingert to further expand this new branch, and in due course Joe saw to it that the words “and Astronomy” were added to the department's title. It was the beginning of the remarkable growth of the GSU astronomy community into what it is today.

Dick remained on the faculty at GSU until 2012, when he retired as Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He received numerous awards while at GSU, including the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award for the College of Arts and Sciences (1986) and the University Alumni Distinguished Professor Award (1997). He thoroughly enjoyed teaching, whether it be introductory undergraduate courses or at the graduate level. Numerous graduate students completed their degrees under his direction and he took great satisfaction in their success. He took two visiting appointments during his time at GSU; one to Caltech (1977) to collaborate with Maarten Schmidt, and a two-year appointment at NASA/HQ where he served as a Visiting Senior Scientist in the Astrophysics Division. While at NASA/HQ, he served as Senior Mission Scientist for two space shuttle missions (ORFEUS I and II) and as the Deputy Senior Mission Scientist for the first servicing mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dick came to GSU without the benefit of post-doctoral experience, but he became an expert in the area of optical photometry and rather quickly became prominent in the field of AGN optical variability. For the next three decades, he directed an ambitious observational program that focused on the rapid microvariability of blazars and other Active Galactic Nuclei. His work was wide-ranging and involved many collaborators, including Ben McGimsey, John Wilson, Richard Willamon, and Alan Marscher. Much of the early excitement about this research was summarized in the proceedings of a conference held at GSU in 1990, Variability of Active Galactic Nuclei, that was co-edited by Dick Miller and Paul Wiita. Dick recruited a cohort of graduate students that contributed to his research program over the course of his productive career. These students include Michael Carini, Joe Eggen, Elizabeth Ferrara, Sethanne Howard, Minhwan Jang, Megan Jackson Johnson, Jeremy Maune, John Noble, Kevin Marshall, John McFarland, Angela Osterman Meyer, Wesley Ryle, Clay Turner, and Amy Campbell Williams.

Dick Miller’s contributions to research, mentoring, and scholarship at GSU will be long remembered and valued. While Dick would never lay claim to the title of “father of GSU astronomy,” that is, of course, what he was.