Carlos O. Miller (1923-2012) enrolled at The Ohio State University after serving in the army during World War II. He earned his doctorate in plant physiology there in 1951, and upon graduation accepted a position in Folke Skoog’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. There, Miller isolated kinetin, a key hormone that influences plant growth and development. The Skoog lab was the first to show the diversity of kinetin’s effects and its interaction with the plant hormone auxin.

Miller joined the IU faculty in 1957. The majority of his work revolved around cytokinin-related substances. In the early 1960s, Miller extracted zeatin from maize endosperm, showing the first instance of a naturally occurring adenine-based cytokinin. He retired from teaching in 1987, but continued his research up until his death in 2012. His last project focused on an herb, Lindenbergia muraria. Miller had discovered a compound that promoted flowering and was investigating how environmental factors interact with that compound.