Marquis Who's Who Millennium Magazine

278 MILLENNIUM G eorge H. Miley has over five decades of experience in the engineering field. His passion for engineering was inspired by his father, who had a small chemistry lab setup in the basement of their home. His father used to come up with patented inventions that were eventually employed in oil refineries in the United States and overseas. Dr. Miley never had any doubt that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. While majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in physics at Carnegie-Mellon University, he became fascinated with the developing nuclear power division at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh. Subsequently he enrolled in chemical and nuclear engineering courses at the University of Michigan for graduate studies. Throughout his time at Michigan, he developed a strong interest in fusion, which he later focused on when he joined the staff of the University of Illinois in 1961. As a result of his leadership in the field, he founded and served as the first director of the Fusion Studies Laboratory at the University of Illinois and was also the first editor of the American Nuclear Society’s Fusion Technology journal. Dr. Miley had worked on nuclear submarine designs at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois. His decision to return to academia was driven by a desire to work with students and have more freedom in doing research. His interest in nuclear energy prompted him to conduct long-term research in a variety of areas, including nuclear reactor kinetics, nuclear-pumped lasers, fusion science and engineering, nuclear batteries, radiation energy conversion, and low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) power cells. He was asked to testify as an independent, open-minded researcher in a congressional hearing on cold fusion in 1989. This led to his current research on LENR. Dr. Miley’s views and goals for his research were presented in his book titled “Life at the Center of the Energy Crisis: A Technologist’s Search for a Black Swan” (World Scientific Press, 2013). George H. Miley, Ph.D. Engineering Educator, Researcher, Professor Emeritus Champaign, IL