Rate My Professor Meghan Miller

Professor Meghan S. Miller is a Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU). She completed her Ph.D. in Geophysics at ANU in 2006, M.Eng. at Cornell University in 2000, M.S. at Columbia University in 1999, and B.A. at Whittier College in 1997. Her distinguished career encompasses Associate Professor at ANU from January 2017 to December 2020, Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology from June 2015 to December 2016, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California from February 2009 to May 2018, NSERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Rice University and the University of British Columbia from August 2006 to March 2009, and Research Associate at the University of Calgary from November 2008 to March 2009. Miller returned to ANU as Associate Professor in 2017 before her promotion to full Professor in January 2021.

Miller's research specializes in observational seismology to understand the structural and dynamical evolution of the Earth from core to surface. She investigates tectonic plate boundaries, particularly subduction zones where oceanic plates descend into the mantle, and the structure of stable continental interiors as records of long-term plate tectonic processes. Integrating novel seismological techniques, new data acquisition in data-poor regions, geologic data, and geophysical observations, her work addresses key questions in plate tectonics, seismicity, volcanism, and environmental phenomena. Under her ARC Future Fellowship starting in 2022, she advances Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology for high-resolution subsurface imaging, micro-seismicity detection, groundwater monitoring, and storm tracking. As Program Director for AuScope Earth Imaging since 2018 and a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Ocean, Mantle, and Biosphere Systems (COMBS), she leads seismic deployments in Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, Morocco, Spain, Timor Leste, and Indonesia, contributing to AusPass for passive seismic data management. She has supervised numerous PhD students, postdocs, and undergraduates. Key publications include "Mantle flow deflected by interactions between subducted slabs and cratonic keels" (Nature Geoscience, 2012), "Reactivated lithospheric-scale discontinuities localize dynamic uplift of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains" (Geology, 2014), "Southwest Australia Seismic Network (SWAN): recording earthquakes in Australia’s most active seismic zone" (Seismological Research Letters, 2023), and "Seismology at light speed: how fibre-optic telecommunications cables deliver a close-up view of NZ's Alpine Fault" (The Conversation, 2023). Her research has over 5,000 citations on Google Scholar.