ALUMNI
A L U M N I D I S T IN G U IS H E D B Y T H E I R F O R E S I G H T
Our alumni’s commitment of time, energy and resources to the Engineering School is a reflection of their
insight that the type of engineers U.Va. creates are precisely the kind of engineers the world needs.
A L U MNUS DAVID MILLER
More than half of the world’s 400 million solar panels
installed since 1975 contain materials produced by
DuPont’s Electronics and Communications business.
David Miller (EE ’81) is its president.
DUPONT PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT-ELECT OF
ENGINEERING SCHOOL TR USTEES
A
lthough David Miller (EE ’81) jokes about having a six-year undergraduate degree,
he clearly didn’t waste any time earning it. Miller was a chemistry major before
shifting to electrical engineering, and that combination turned out to be the perfect
platform for his career at DuPont. Today, Miller is president of DuPont Electronics
and Communications, which produces the materials for such applications as
photovoltaic cells, rigid and flexible circuit boards, and advanced displays. “The
Engineering School gives you a way of thinking about solving problems and
understanding systems that serves you well in a business career,” he says.
A fifth-generation DuPont employee, Miller held several positions in engineering
and manufacturing at the Savannah River Site, a nuclear facility in Aiken, S.C.,
before moving to the DuPont Electronic Materials business. He held several posts,
including managing director of the Asia Pacific region, before stepping up in 2009
to lead the business, one of nine in the company.
Miller reconnected with the School after his son, Brian, enrolled as an
undergraduate. Now as president-elect of the School of Engineering Trustees, he
hopes to bring to the School some of the concepts he has learned over the course
of his career. “I want students to leave the School with a global perspective and an
appreciation that the world is interconnected in ways that were unimaginable when I
was a student,” he says.
As he looks ahead, he sees an even bigger role for the trustees. “Next year, we
are going to have a new dean,” he notes. “As a group, we will be focused on doing
whatever we can to make sure that whoever fills the job will be successful.” Miller
also sees opportunities for the trustees to help the Engineering School deepen its
corporate relationships. In his view, the nation’s foremost corporations are looking to
establish mutually beneficial partnerships with a select group of engineering schools
— and he wants U.Va. to be among them.
“I’m very proud of the School and gratified to be working with such an
experienced group of trustees,” Miller says. “We are all working very hard because
we believe in this School’s mission.”
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“I want students to leave the
School with a global perspective
and an appreciation that the
world is interconnected in ways
that were unimaginable when I
was a student.” — David Miller