Miller Mikhail Adolfovich Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
1924–2004
M.A. Miller was born on May 3, 1924, in Nizhny Novgorod (from 1932 to 1991 – The City of Gorky).
After finishing secondary school he enrolled at the Gorky Polytechnic Institute (now the Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University). In 1942 he was drafted into the army, but in 1943 was discharged for health reasons and continued his studies at the Polytechnic Institute.
In 1945 he transferred to the newly opened Faculty of Radiophysics at Gorky State University – the first faculty of its kind in our country and in the world, whose opening was tied to the birth of a new science, radiophysics. His academic advisor, and soon a close lifelong friend, was M.L. Levin – a talented physicist and student of academician M.A. Leontovich. The subject of Levin's research – the electrodynamics of antennas and transmission lines – shaped the scope of Miller's scientific interests for several years.
After graduating from the university in 1949, he spent two years working as an engineer at radio-engineering enterprises in Gorky, and in 1950 entered graduate school at Gorky University under M.T. Grekhova, while simultaneously working at the Gorky Research Physical-Technical Institute, where in 1953 he became head of a laboratory. During these years he carried out a series of studies developing the impedance-based description of microwave-range electrodynamic systems, including pioneering work on the theory of surface waves in slow-wave structures and on impedance antennas with frequency-swept beams. This work was of great general scientific significance and immediately placed its author at the forefront of Soviet and world science in the theory of radiation and diffraction.
In 1956 M.A. Miller headed the electrodynamics department of the newly founded Radiophysical Research Institute (NIRFI) in Gorky. There, under his leadership, research began in the rapidly developing field of the physics of radiation-plasma interaction. It was there that the concept of the time-averaged ponderomotive force, often called the Miller force in the Russian and world literature, was born. This force, which acts on charged particles in inhomogeneous high-frequency fields and plays a key role in modern thermonuclear reactor projects, laser-plasma accelerators of charged particles, and the generation of radiation across various ranges (from radio to optical), was first found in a joint work by A.V. Gaponov-Grekhov and M.A. Miller (Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 1958); a number of related general-theoretical and applied aspects were subsequently analyzed in detail in a series of works by M.A. Miller.
By the mid-1960s a major scientific school in radiophysics and plasma physics had formed around M.A. Miller. It made an important contribution to the creation and development of a number of fundamental areas of modern linear and nonlinear plasma electrodynamics. Among these areas one can note the theory of self-focusing of wave beams and packets in plasma and other media under various nonlinearity mechanisms, the study of resonant absorption and density jumps forming in smoothly inhomogeneous plasma under the action of strong fields, studies of plasma turbulence, the electrodynamics of freely localized microwave and optical discharges in gases, and the development of the theory of wave diffraction and radiation in plasma.
Research in these areas continued at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where M.A. Miller headed the plasma physics department from the institute's founding (1977) until 1988, after which he worked in the same department as chief researcher until the last day of his life. For his work on nonlinear wave processes in plasma, M.A. Miller and his students were awarded the USSR State Prize in 1987. Official recognition of M.A. Miller's achievements is also reflected in the titles of Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honored Soros Professor, and Honored Professor of Nizhny Novgorod State University.
M.A. Miller's teaching and scientific-educational activity deserves special mention. After graduating from the university, it was inseparably linked with the Faculty of Radiophysics of Nizhny Novgorod State University, of which he was himself a graduate. While heading major departments of research institutes, he also served concurrently as head of the Department of Electrodynamics of the Faculty of Radiophysics and as a professor of the same department. The general-faculty courses on classical and applied electrodynamics that he developed and repeatedly taught at the Faculty of Radiophysics in the 1950s–1960s became an important factor shaping the "electrodynamic" culture of Nizhny Novgorod's scientific schools. His lectures were attended not only by students and graduate students but also by faculty of the Radiophysics Faculty and other natural-science faculties of the university, as well as by instructors from other institutions.
Miller's lectures were always distinguished by a wealth of scientific content combined with clarity and accessibility of presentation, drawing young minds in with the beauty of the scientific truths being revealed, the figurativeness and unexpectedness of his comparisons, and a sense of inner freedom possible at any stage of outer unfreedom. The "Collection of Problems in Electrodynamics" (Moscow, Nauka Publishing, 2001), written and published with his participation, is recommended as a textbook for Russian universities and was awarded the Nizhny Novgorod Prize in the field of education. An example of interaction between a major scientist and young researchers is M.A. Miller's work within the Institute of Applied Physics' program for research trainees, which he headed from 1978 to 1992.
M.A. Miller devoted a great deal of time and energy to translation and encyclopedic work. He was the editor and co-translator of the Russian translations of the well-known electrodynamics textbook by W. Smythe and the famous "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" by J.C. Maxwell. He wrote and edited several dozen articles in the Physical Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Physical Encyclopedia. In his later years M.A. Miller became keenly interested in the history of science, especially the part of it in which he had himself been a participant and creator. He considered this an important element in raising the younger generation of researchers. He published a number of articles and essays containing reflections on scientific creativity and personal reminiscences of interest to readers concerned with the history of science.
A special place in this series is occupied by a book, published under his editorship, dedicated to the memory of his teacher and friend (Mikhail Lvovich Levin: Life, Recollections, Work, Nizhny Novgorod: Institute of Applied Physics RAS, 1998), which has already gone through two editions. For his eightieth birthday, M.A. Miller planned to gather in a single book his works on the history of scientific discoveries and on the relationship between the intuitive and the rational in scientific creativity; speeches and articles connected with the anniversaries of eminent scientists, his friends, and scientific institutions; and his literary parodies and humorous verse written for various people, on various occasions and without occasion. He set the final period on this work on the eve of his death, leaving the book, prepared for publication, as a kind of testament to his students and colleagues.
Mikhail Adolfovich was a very tactful and kind man, in whom these qualities combined remarkably with high demands on those around him, especially where the ethics of scientific and personal relations were concerned; toward himself he was mercilessly demanding.. Everyone who had occasion to work with M.A. (as he was often called among close friends) knew the essential traits of his personality as a scientist and teacher: the breadth and diversity of his interests, the freedom and clarity of his physical thinking, his vivid and witty manner of speech and writing, combined with an ability to kindle enthusiasm in young researchers by directing their attention to the key points of the phenomena under study.
M.A. Miller was a center of attraction at every seminar and conference he took part in; a great many people came to him with their scientific, quasi-scientific, and simply everyday problems. Among his direct students are 7 doctors of science (one of whom is now a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, another a corresponding member of the Academy), and more than 20 candidates of science, laureates of the Lenin and State Prizes, leading specialists in radiophysics successfully working at major research centers in Russia and abroad. The number of researchers who consider themselves students of M.A. Miller is significantly larger; many well-known scientists – founders of their own scientific schools and directions – also count themselves among his scientific school.
Mikhail Adolfovich will forever remain in the hearts and memory of those who had the good fortune and happiness of knowing him.
Alexander Andronov, B.M. Bolotovsky, Andrey Viktorovich Gaponov-Grekhov, V.B. Gildenburg, Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, L.S. Dolin, V.V. Zheleznyakov, V.A. Zverev (Zverev), I.G. Kondratiev, Alexander Grigoryevich Litvak, E.V. Suvorov, V.I. Talanov