Richard K. Miller

Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus

Richard K. Miller, Olin's Founding President

education

  • Ph.D., Applied Mechanics, California Institute of Technology
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis

awards

  • 2023 International Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering (UK)
  • 2022 NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize
  • 2017 Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
  • 2017 Brock International Prize in Education Laureate
  • 2014 Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
  • 2013 NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize
  • 2012 Member, National Academy of Engineering
  • 2011 ASEE Donald E. Marlowe Award

research

  • Engineering Education
  • Applied Mechanics
  • Earthquake Engineering
  • Design of Deployable Spacecraft

Richard K. Miller is the Founding Chair of the Coalition for Transformational Education and a Senior Advisor to LearningWell magazine. He is also member of the Board of Trustees of the Asian University for Women and a Research Associate at MIT.

Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999; in June 2020 and became President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering; He then served as the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor of Aerospace Systems at MIT (2020-2021).  Previously, he served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Iowa, Associate Dean of Engineering at USC in Los Angeles, and assistant professor of engineering at UCSB in Santa Barbara. 

Miller is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors, an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), and a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  He is  co-recipient of the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education twice—in 2013 and again in 2022.  He also received the 2017 Brock International Prize in Education, and the 2011 Marlowe Award from the American Society for Engineering Education.  In 2014, he received the  Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2002 he received the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Davis.

Miller has served as Chair of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation.  He has also served on advisory boards and committees for Harvard University, Stanford University, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Lemelson Foundation, the Asian University for Women, and others. In addition, he has served as a consultant to the World Bank in the establishment of new universities in developing countries. Miller earned his B.S at the University of California, Davis, his S.M. from MIT, and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.