Cass T. Miller

Cass T. Miller is the Okun Distinguished Professor in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. He serves as an Adjunct Professor in Applied Physical Sciences while maintaining a full-time faculty status. His research bridges environmental engineering, computational physics, and biomedical modeling.

• PhD in Environmental Engineering (University of Michigan, 1984)
• MS in Environmental Engineering (University of Michigan, 1981)
• MS in Civil Engineering (University of Toledo, 1979)
• BS in Civil Engineering (University of Toledo, 1977)

Professor Miller's research focuses on mass, momentum, and energy transport in multiphase systems across natural, engineered, and biological domains. He pioneered the Thermodynamically Constrained Averaging Theory (TCAT), which provides first-principles modeling of porous medium systems. His work spans groundwater hydrology, carbon sequestration, hydraulic fracturing risk analysis, and tumor growth modeling.

Recent publications demonstrate methodological innovation in Physics of Fluids (2025), foundational TCAT theory in ARC Geophysical Research (2024), and transformative open science publishing models in Journal of Scholarly Publishing (2023). His 2021 Archive of Applied Mechanics article connects environmental physics to cancer research through continuum mechanical frameworks.

Scientific leadership highlights:

• 7-year continuous DOE INCITE supercomputing grant for multiphase porous medium simulations
• Founder of the Arc Geophysical Research journal
• Creator of the Academic Research Community (ARC) Alliance for diamond open access

He teaches core graduate courses covering Environmental Physics I-II, Numerical Methods, and Uncertainty Quantification. His Multiphase Transport Phenomena class emphasizes first-principles modeling of complex systems.