Newsmakers

Miller a "willing warrior"

Ken Miller is making news - again. A professor of biology and one of the nation's most prominent public defenders of Charles Darwin, Miller popped up in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and on the front page of The Providence Journal in recent weeks. He also contributed, for the third time, to National Public Radio's weekly talk show "Science Friday," discussing the latest controversy over evolution and how it is taught in schools.

This time around, Miller (left) landed a place in the spotlight when a public school district in Cobb County, Georgia, placed stickers on a biology textbook co-written by Miller. The stickers cautioned, "Evolution is a theory, not a fact," and were the subject of a federal trail in Georgia. Miller was a witness in the trial. On January 13, the judge ruled the stickers were unconstitutional.

The fight over the validity of evolution, one of the most critical theories in science, is one that found Miller. He didn't go looking for it.

In 1981, when he was a fledgling professor at Brown, a group of students asked him to debate a creationist coming to campus and challenging any professor to spar on stage. The event drew almost 3,000 people to Meehan Auditorium. Miller came packing notes on everything from meteorite dust to the fossil record. He brought two carousels of slides.

The crowd, which drew heavily from area churches, occasionally laughed at his opponent. But Miller knew he triumphed when the science and religion editors from The Providence Journal approached him after the debate. In a bit of contrary gambling, the religion editor had bet the science editor that Miller would win. "I'm going to get the free dinner," the religion editor said.

Miller is a willing warrior in the evolution battle.

"I feel this is an issue I am particularly qualified to talk about. I understand biochemistry and physics and cell biology - but I'm not an evolutionary biologist, so I don't have a stake in a particular school of thought," he said. "I also got involved in the debate back when my girls were young. I wanted the science instruction they got to be accurate and effective.

"I'm also a ham, and I am competitive. So I enjoy the debate."

Miller's take on the controversy: Any scientific theory, including evolution, can be refuted. But Miller believes evolution's central thesis - that species change over time - is sound. And it's not likely to be upended. There is too much evidence to support species change in a variety of fields, from genetics to geology, archeology to astronomy. Meanwhile, Miller says, creationists and "intelligent design" proponents have no varied, rigorous proof that God made man and plunked him down, unchanged, on the planet.

Miller, by the way, is a devout Catholic who believes in God. The Creator, he thinks, made "all matter and energy in the universe"; He just didn't make man directly and doesn't control everyday life on earth.

"God created free will," he says. "Our ability to think for ourselves, to choose to do wonderful and terrible things to one another, is part of the design."

In the last two decades, Miller has presented his arguments in a variety of media, including a book titled Finding Darwin's God, a web site, opinion pieces, interviews, and several public debates, including a 1997 appearance on Firing Line. He will, no doubt, grab the spotlight again. A Pennsylvania school board has mandated that "intelligent design" be taught alongside evolution. Another federal lawsuit has been filed. - Wendy Y. Lawton

Mittlemann is COO on WTC Project

On December 10, Adjunct Lecturer in Engineering Josef Mittlemann (below) got a telephone call that changed his life. A representative of Silverstein Properties, which is redeveloping the World Trade Center in Manhattan (below), offered Mittlemann the job of chief operating officer. Mittlemann accepted.

"I can't think of another commercial activity that has such symbolic significance and importance to so many people in this country and abroad," Mittlemann wrote in a message to his faculty colleagues. "It is a most challenging and invigorating undertaking, whose scope and meaningfulness will require me to dedicate my full attention and time to bringing this 'good work' to completion. I am honored to have been asked to serve in this capacity and feel it is a clear reflection of the strength and dynamics of all that is Brown."

Mittlemann's reference to "good work" alludes to a popular course he offers in which students examine principles of entrepreneurship and consider how they might accomplish "good work" - meaningful engagement in greater purposes - during their working years. EN0193 - Entrepreneurship and Good Work: Engineering Dreams" - offers students the chance to consider the social, business, moral, and ethical considerations they will encounter in their professional lives.

"Although we are sad to lose such a dedicated and capable teacher and mentor ... I know we cannot help but be excited and honored that a Brown alumnus - especially one so closely associated with the Division of Engineering - has been selected to lead a project of such scope and magnitude," Clyde Briant, dean of engineering, wrote in a message to the engineering faculty. - Mark Nickel