John M. Miller

Biography

John Milton Miller was born in Hanover, PA. He graduated from Yale University in 1915 with a Ph.D. degree in Physics. From 1907-1919, Miller was a physicist with the National Bureau of Standards, and from 1919-1923, a radio engineer at the Radio Laboratory, Air Station, Navy Department, Anacostia, D. C. He then joined the Naval Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, as a radio engineer. During the period 1925-1936, he was in charge of radio receiver research at the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia, and from 1936-1940, he was assistant head of the research laboratory for the RCA Radiotron Company.

Returning to NRL in 1940, Miller subsequently became superintendent of Radio I Division in 1945, was named associate director of research in 1951, and then was appointed scientific research administrator in 1952. During this latter period he continued to act as superintendent of Radio I Division at the laboratory.

Miller has served as a patent expert with the government and has been issued more than 20 patents of his own in the radio field. His inventions include fundamental circuits for quartz crystal oscillators. He collaborated in the perfecting of crystals cut to have zero temperature coefficient, and the designing of the first high-powered crystal- controlled radio transmitter.

Miller was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1945 for "initiation of the development of a new flexible radio-frequency cable urgently needed in radio and radar equipment which solved a desperate material shortage in the United States during World War II, a well- deserved honor." In 1953 he was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor, in recognition of "his pioneering contributions to our basic knowledge of electron tube theory, of radio instruments and measurements, and of crystal controlled oscillators."