Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-6342 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu

 

For Immediate Release

 

 

Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor

Phone: (307) 766-6342

E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu

Archived News Site www.uwyo.edu/agadmin/news/news.htm

 

Date: April 10, 2007

 

UW College of Agriculture associate dean receives distinguished alumni honor

            It’s somewhat fitting an honored weed scientist should return to his collegiate roots.

            Stephen D. Miller, director of the Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) and associate dean in the University of Wyoming’s College of Agriculture, has received the first distinguished alumni honor from North Dakota State University’s (NDSU) College of Agriculture.

            “I’m thrilled Steve is going to receive this award,” said Rod Lym, professor of weed science at NDSU in Fargo, N.D.

            Lym nominated Miller. “He’s a well-respected weed scientist, and he’s had many graduate students over the years and brought in millions of dollars of grant money. People respect him. He’s a motivator and gets the job done.”

            Miller will visit NDSU April 11-12. Dinner with Ken Grafton, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources, and director of the North Dakota AES, starts activities.

            “We are very excited to honor Dr. Stephen Miller with this award,” said Grafton. “His distinguished career is a testament to his abilities, and we are proud to have played a role in his education and early career. Dr. Miller is an exceptional individual and an excellent spokesperson for both the University of Wyoming and North Dakota State University.”

            Miller is the first to receive the “distinguished alumni” honor. The honor in the past has been the “master’s” designation.

            After graduating from Colorado State University, Miller chose to attend NDSU rather than return to the family’s dairy farm near Platteville, Colorado. Now professor emeritus, John Nalewaja was his adviser at NDSU and later a colleague. Miller said Nalewaja was the most influential person in his life.

             “I have always been proud of Steve,” Nalewaja said in a 2005 interview. “You think you are a ‘know-it-all’ professor but, actually, I learned more from Steve than what I gave him. He was a dynamo as far as work. His intelligence is the big thing. He has a tremendous memory.”

            Lym calls Miller one of the brightest people he knows. “He has a photographic memory,” Lym said. “If I had a question about plot work in 1982, he could tell us what page it is on in a report.”

            Nalewaja also describes Miller’s memory. “I would ask him about when a certain article was published, and he’d say, for example, ‘July 1976.’ Remarkable.”

            Miller earned his master’s and Ph.D. at NDSU and accepted an assistant professor’s position there. He was at NDSU 11 and one-half years before coming to the plant sciences department at UW. He accepted the AES director position in 2005.

            Miller’s NDSU schedule includes breakfast with ag administrators and department chairs, a tour of the alumni center, a tour of the FargoDome to visit the new Division I facilities, being a guest lecturer in an introduction weed science class, a tour of the department of plant sciences, a meeting with students, presenting the seminar “Biotechnology: The Changing Scene in Agriculture,” attending a college reception and having dinner with weed scientists.

            Lym was asked what weed scientists talk about when they gather.

            “No different than anybody else,” said Lym, who graduated from UW with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology in 1976 and skipped to his doctorate degree in agronomy in 1979. “With Steve, we’ll probably talk about things that happened while he was here.”

            For example, Lym recalls a graduate student’s encounter with the heavy clay soil in the area. Miller and the graduate student were checking muddy plots. “His grad student got stuck in the mud walking in the plots shin high,” said Lym. “Steve had to wade out there and pull him out (his boots stayed there) and carry him back.”

            Lym said he respects Miller most for his dedication to students. Miller has had more than 45 graduate students. Twenty-five are master’s students and 20 are doctorate students. 

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