Life and Work
Miller was born in 1801 at Velindre near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1826 as fifth wrangler. He became a Fellow there in 1829. For a few years Miller was occupied as a college tutor and during this time he published treatises on hydrostatics and hydrodynamics.
Miller also gave special attention to crystallography, and on the resignation of William Whewell he succeeded in 1832 to the professorship of mineralogy, a post he held until 1870. Miller's chief work, on Crystallography, was published in 1839. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1838.
Miller indices are named after William Hallowes Miller, the method having been described in his Treatise on Crystallography (1839). The mineral known as millerite is named after him.
In 1852 Miller edited a new edition of H. J. Brooke's Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy. He assisted, in 1843, the committee appointed to superintend the construction of the new Parliamentary standards of length and weight.
Miller died in 1880 at Cambridge, England.
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