Memoir

Oscar L. Miller, Jr.

University of Virginia

April 12, 1925 - January 28, 2012


Scientific Discipline: Cellular and Developmental Biology
Membership Type:
Emeritus (elected 1978)

Oscar Miller, Jr., was a pioneering cell biologist who, during a long career of teaching and breakthrough research, gained his greatest renown by creating electron micrographs clearly showing genes in the process of transcription. The photos displayed serially repeated ribosomal RNA genes that were individually recognizable, resembling a string of “Christmas trees” with transcription just beginning at the top of the “trees” and nearly complete at the bottom.  These stunning images proved what molecular biologists had only postulated about actively transcribing genes. Starting with this signal triumph, he led two laboratories where, over a 25-year period, he and small, select groups of doctoral candidates, post-docs, and faculty associates turned out a vast array of groundbreaking discoveries.
Miller earned his bachelor’s (1948) and master’s (1950) degrees in agronomy from North Carolina State College (now University). From 1950 to 1956 he was a tobacco farmer, after which he enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Minnesota and was awarded a Ph.D. in plant genetics in 1960.  He set up his first lab in 1961 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he continued his research until 1973. That year he became chair of the University of Virginia’s Biology Department, simultaneously directing another cell biology lab for the next six years, before giving up his administrative duties to devote himself wholly to teaching and research until his retirement in 1995. 

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