Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 505-277-5915

October 29, 2002 FARMINGTON NATIVE REVAMPS UNM PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY OFFERINGS Bill Miller is not from Roswell, but he has an eye for unidentified flying objects all the same. On a morning stroll recently, the Farmington native had a physics encounter of the Albuquerque kind. "I saw a bright light," said Miller, University of New Mexico Department of Physics and Astronomy teaching lab supervisor. "On second glance, I saw that a sprinkler had gotten the sidewalk wet and the streetlight was reflecting the light. It wasn't a UFO." Miller brings similar humor and real world examples to the laboratory and classroom. Outside UNM's Regener Hall he regularly conducts solar energy demonstrations baking chocolate chip cookies in a solar oven he handmade. "It shows students 'yes, you can actually do something with solar energy.' And they get a cookie at the end of class," Miller said. In the past few years Miller assisted in revamping three physics and one astronomy lab as well as the UNM course Physics 106, light and color, which he teaches. "Physics is the study of the forces of nature. We can't avoid interactions with it. We teach where nature pushes and what's going to push back. We convey concepts so the students learn the basics, but they don't have to work out the equations at the 100 levels. We try to take away the mystery, but not the wonder." Miller graduated from Farmington High School in 1967. He moved to Portales and then to Dallas where he worked for Texas Instruments before deciding to return to school. "I wanted to work with people, not machines," he said. He enrolled at UNM in Albuquerque and focused on sociology and economics. He developed an interest in many different subjects and later chose to earn a bachelor of university studies. "I claim to have three credits from every department," he said. Advisors noted that with a few more political science courses under his belt he would be perfect pre-law, but Miller ruled for the U.S. Peace Corps instead. He traveled to West Africa and for two years worked at the University of Cape Coast in the Physics Department. In 1977, Miller moved back to Farmington and accepted a position with the oil service company Gearhart Industries. As a well logger, he looked for promising places to drill and took and recorded measurements of rock formations underground. After four years, he transferred to the company's headquarters in Singapore. After leaving the company in 1981, he moved to New Zealand where he met his wife Jeanine, a nurse. The couple headed for Hobbs, N.M., where Miller found work once again in the oil fields. "Hobbs is as remote a place as any I've lived outside of the U.S.," he said. In 1986, there was a downturn in the oil industry. With son Travis on the way the family moved to Albuquerque and Miller secured a position with the UNM Physics and Astronomy Department. At UNM for little less than 17 years, Miller says he still enjoys travels with his family, which includes Aaron, 13, at least once a year both in the U.S. and abroad. He is working on a master's degree in the UNM College of Education Department of Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies. ###

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