Monthly Spotlight: Gary W. Miller PhD.

Dr. Miller, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Vice Dean of Research Strategy and Innovation at Columbia University, is a leader in exposomics.

Gary W. Miller PhD, Columbia University

Figure 1

Dr. Miller is a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Vice Dean of Research Strategy and Innovation at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. He is a leader in exposomics, which strives to provide a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the non-genetic contributors to health and disease. Dr. Miller is the founding director of the Center for Innovative Exposomics at Columbia University and is also the contact MPI of the Network of Exposomics in the United States (NEXUS). Dr. Miller was the founding director of the HERCULES Exposome Research Center at Emory University, the first exposome-based research center in the U.S. He authored the first book on the topic, The Exposome: A Primer published by Elsevier, and is the founding editor of the journal Exposome. His research focuses on the environmental drivers of neurodegeneration. His laboratory uses exposomics to understand the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other disorders.

Fun Fact: Gary likes to frequent bars and pubs that have a scientifically historical significance.

Chirag Patel, PhD , Rima Habre, ScD, and Gary Miller, PhD at the Eagle Pub.

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Chirag, Rima, and Gary at the Eagle Pub in Cambridge. They were excited to get “the booth” where Watson and Crick famously announced their discovery of the structure of DNA on February 28, 1953. The team was visiting the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute, along with EIRENE collaborators, to discuss how EMBL-EBI could incorporate exposomics into their data systems used worldwide for genomics and other omic sciences.

In 1953, three papers appeared in Nature that reported data that led to the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins. Dr. Franklin died prior to the 1962 awards and Nobel awards are not awarded posthumously.

1. Watson JD, Crick FH. A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953;171:737–738
2. Franklin RE, Gosling RG. Molecular configuration in sodium thymonucleate. Nature 1953;171:740–741.
3. Wilkins MHF, Stokes AR, Wilson HR. Molecular structure of deoxypentose nucleic acids. Nature1953;171:738–740.

Recently, Dr. Miller also presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences on February 14, 2025 in a session entitled “After the Genome: What Comes Next and Are We Ready.” The session was chaired by NEXUS investigator Thomas Metz, PhD, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and includes a talk by Aristides Patrinos, PhD, from New York University, who led the Department of Energy’s efforts to sequence the human genome.