Alumni Interview: Grant Miller

“Today, I command the Reserve Intelligence Component for U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, and still teach Southwestern College freshmen and sophomores about the wonders of the cosmos,” says Capt. Grant Miller, USN. (Image by Stacy Keck)

Growing up in Chicago’s south suburbs, “nerding out” on Star Trek and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, I had a small telescope. Gazing up at the sky, I dreamed of understanding the universe.

After graduating from Thornwood High [South Holland, Ill.], I headed off to the U. of I. During freshman orientation, a faculty advisor asked if I’d thought about my major. Before the first session of my first class, I said, “Astronomy.”

But if I had stars in my eyes that day, I’d soon learn a hard lesson.

College classes kicked my butt. I barely passed physics, a subject I thought I knew. My grades were so bad that the dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences called me into her office. “You can’t come back in the fall,” she said. “We’ll let you re-enroll after a year, but you’ll need to take some classes in the meantime.”

Money was tight, so I went back to Chicago and worked in construction. Operating backhoes and bulldozers, I helped lay the foundation for the skyscraper at 900 North Michigan Avenue and took community-college science classes at night.

After a year, I returned to the U. of I., and something clicked! My fellow astronomy majors and I became friends. We worked together in study groups. I learned how to operate the telescope at the Quad Observatory—officially called the University of Illinois Astronomical Observatory—a beautiful instrument built in 1896. Then, thanks to Professor Ken Yoss, I got a big break. He used grant money of his own to send me to San Diego, where the U. of I. astronomy department collaborated with San Diego State University, and I found myself using its 40-inch research telescope. That led to a teaching assistantship under Dr. Yoss, which (crucially) covered my senior-year tuition.

“I decided I’d rather apply and fall short than spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have tried harder.” —Grant Miller, ’89 LAS

I was proud to graduate from Illinois, but that left me in a fix. What do you do with a bachelor’s degree in astronomy? Many if not most professionals in my chosen field have Ph.D.s. I applied for Ph.D. programs without success. During my campus days in the Navy ROTC program, I applied for the Navy’s Officer Candidate School, and was rejected.

Dr. Yoss encouraged me to apply to San Diego State’s graduate program. By then I doubted myself, but he said, “What do you have to lose? If you fail, so what?”

I decided I’d rather apply and fall short than spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have tried harder.

Lo and behold, I got accepted.

Before long, I was operating SDSU’s magnificent telescope, gathering data for Yoss and his U. of I. colleagues. One of those colleagues was You-Hua Chu, who specialized in Wolf-Rayet nebulae—glowing clouds of dust and gas located around extremely hot, massive stars. Dr. Chu hired me to collaborate on a research paper that became my master’s thesis. Even today, that paper is one of the leading reference works on Wolf-Rayet nebulae.

I became so proficient at operating the 40-inch telescope that I wound up training astronomers who were new to it. You don’t want some newbie to send your multimillion-dollar telescope crashing into a ladder!

Still chronically short of rent money, I began teaching part-time at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif., just south of San Diego. I still saw myself as a researcher, but enjoyed teaching undergrads—even if some of them thought “Principles of Astronomy” had to do with horoscopes. I earned tenure in 1997 and went on to be chair of the astronomy department.

But there was another dream on my list. Along with the stars, I was fascinated by ships, and had joined the Navy ROTC program at Illinois. Enter Scott Greiling, ’88 LAS, my U. of I. roommate and lifelong friend. Despite my tenure track as a professor, he urged me to reapply to the Navy’s Officer Candidate School. That led to another rejection. But while I never saw myself as special, I do have a stubborn streak. I tried for an officer’s commission in the Navy Reserve, was rejected yet again, and enlisted as a seaman—the lowest rank. My work as an astronomer came in handy in my job as an imagery analyst, studying surveillance and reconnaissance of airfields and ports all over the world.

Almost 30 years later, I couldn’t be happier with my dual careers. After finally earning a commission as a naval officer, I went on to command sailors who study the sort of images I used to pore over. I served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and from 2012 to 2015 I taught physics at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Not bad for a guy who made his U. of I. grades by the skin of his teeth!

Today, I command the Reserve Intelligence Component for U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, and still teach Southwestern College freshmen and sophomores about the wonders of the cosmos. It’s a long way from that backyard telescope.