Henry LeRoy Miller

retired

Chemistry & Climate Processes

Affiliation

CIRES

Education

Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Ph.D., 1996; University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; 1992-1996
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, M.S., 1992; University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; 1990-1992
Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, B.S., 1990; University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado; 1986-1990

Research

I began my association with atmospheric research in 1988 as an undergraduate work study student.  I came to work with Susan Solomon's Middle Atmosphere group in the Aeronomy Lab for a single summer project and, although that project has long faded into the hazy past, I've maintained a long and interesting association with this field of research, and the many wonderful colleagues of the Aeronomy Lab and Chemical Sciences Lab (formerly the ESRL Chemical Sciences Division).  In those early days, we were investigating stratospheric ozone depletion in both polar and mid latitudes, both making observational studies and through modeling studies.  As an engineer by birth and training, I gravitated more to the experimental aspects of the group and have been fortunate to travel to almost the ends of the earth in the pursuit of gathering observational data illuminating aspects of stratospheric ozone depletion.

We have since moved on to focus our efforts on improving the understanding of some of the effects of clouds and aerosols on climate.  This quest has also provided me with interesting experiences and travel, such as circumnavigating hurricanes in the NOAA AOC Hurricane Hunters G-IV Gulfstream, from which we collected data used to estimate cloud heights. As my heart is still closely tied to polar regions, I was extremely happy when we traveled to Barrow, Alaska in pursuit of measurements of liquid and ice cloud optical characteristics.

In late 2005, I embarked on a series of new experiences, as I joined the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) Working Group I (WGI) Technical Support Unit (TSU) as an IT and Logistics specialist.  For the next two years, my life was consumed with the task of assisting the authors of "Climate Change 2007, The Physical Science Basis" with their work crafting this state-of-the-science document.  The IPCC, along with the many authors and others who contribute their wisdom, time and effort to these reports, were honored with a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for over two decades of work on climate change.

Since that extremely strenuous period, my professional life has relaxed a bit.  I'm currently working on providing the infrastructure to support our group's modeling and analysis efforts.  The advances in computing power and data storage have increased the amount of data available, and I'm constantly scrambling to keep up with the generation and flow of data sets.

last modified: January 31, 2024