Computer Scientist Appointed Director of Center For Computational Research

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Russ Miller has been appointed director of the new Center for Computational Research where he will oversee all operations of the center.

Miller, UB professor of computer science and engineering, has been a faculty member since 1985. He also is a senior research scientist at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI) and an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at UB.

Miller's primary research focus is the Shake-and-Bake method of molecular structure determination, a project on which he has worked for 10 years with Nobel Laureate Herbert Hauptman, UB research professor of computer science.

Miller and other researchers at HWI have taken the Shake-and-Bake method and created a computer program called SnB that is used worldwide to solve complicated molecular structures. The program is significantly enhancing efforts in the area of rational drug design.

Miller also has performed groundbreaking research in the area of parallel algorithms and architectures. He has applied the technology to solve problems in image processing, computational geometry, graph theory, combinatorial optimization and computational crystallography.

The author of numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and the book "Parallel Algorithms for Regular Architectures," published by The MIT Press, Miller is a member of the editorial board of Parallel Processing Letters and the executive committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Technical Committee on Parallel Processing.

Miller also serves as a consultant for Thinking Machines Corp. in Cambridge, Mass.

A resident of East Amherst, he earned a doctorate from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he received a Distinguished Dissertation Award. He also earned his master's and bachelor's degrees at Binghamton.