Nationality United Kingdom Died September 30, 1870 Alma mater King's College London Education King's College London | Name William Miller Fields Chemistry, Astronomy Role Chemist | |
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Notable awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Books Elements of chemistry, Magnetism and Electricity Awards Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society | ||
William Allen Miller FRS (17 December 1817 – 30 September 1870) was a British scientist.
Life
Miller was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and educated at Ackworth School and King's College London. He was related to William Allen and first cousin to the leading suffragist Anne Knight.
On the death of John Frederic Daniell he succeeded to the Chair of Chemistry at King's. Although primarily a chemist, the scientific contributions for which Miller is mainly remembered today are in spectroscopy and astrochemistry, new fields in his time.
Miller won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1867 jointly with William Huggins, for their spectroscopic study of the composition of stars. In 1845, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
According to his obituary, Miller married Eliza Forrest of Birmingham in 1842. He died in 1870, a year after his wife, and they are both buried at West Norwood Cemetery. They were survived by a son and two daughters.
The crater Miller on the Moon is named after him.