Randy Miller was born on Nov. 6, 1959 in Morton, Illinois. He attended Illinois State University where he participated in undergraduate research programs with Dr. Michael Kurz (organic) and Dr. Cheryl Stevenson (physical). He also had three different internships at The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan working in latexes and resins, central research, and bioproducts. He graduated with a BS in chemistry with honors in 1981. He pursued graduate work at the University of California at Davis working with Dr. Dino Tinti on low temperature spectroscopy of small inorganic complexes. During his graduate career he received a number of teaching awards including a campuswide Outstanding Teaching Assistant award. He received his PhD in 1987. Miller continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Ken Spears at Northwestern University working on picosecond laser studies of solvent effects on photoionization reactions and electron transfer reactions in proteins. In 1988 Miller joined the faculty at California State University, Chico.