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Miller begins tenure as Hannah professor

By Tom Oswald

Jon Miller said it was the interdisciplinary nature of Michigan State that drew him to East Lansing.

Miller officially arrived on campus Aug. 1 as the Hannah Professor of Integrative Studies, a position that provides appointments in the College of Natural Science's Division of Science and Mathematics Education and the College of Social Science's Department of Political Science.

In addition, Miller will also have opportunities to interact with faculty from the College of Arts and Letters and probably the medical colleges too.

"In a lot of ways this is the ideal spot for me," he said. "Much of my work involves the social science perspective of issues such as global climate change or infectious disease, which requires some natural science and some social science. It's a good opportunity for me to work with a number of other faculty at MSU who share my interests in these issues."

He comes to MSU from Northwestern University (NU) where he was director of the Center for Biomedical Communications, as well as professor in the NU Medical School.

Trained as a political scientist, Miller's area of research focuses on public understanding of science and technology and the formulation of public policy on specialized subjects within democratic political systems.

A prolific writer, Miller will have a paper published in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science on the topic "Public Acceptance of Evolution."

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