Keith W. Miller

Timeline

1. 1973–1983

   A computer science PhD at Iowa

   He earns a B.S. from Concordia Teachers College's School of Education in 1973 and an M.S. in mathematics from the College of William & Mary in 1976. In 1973–1975 and 1976–1978, he is an assistant professor of mathematics at Concordia College in Edmonton, Alberta. At the University of Iowa, he heads the Image Processing Lab in Biomedical Engineering from 1982 to 1983 and earns a Ph.D. in computer science in 1983.

2. 1983–1993

   Professor at William & Mary

   He teaches computer science at the College of William & Mary from 1983 to 1993, apart from a 1985–1987 post in mathematical sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University, and consults on software engineering for NASA Langley Research Center. In 1988, he and Stephen K. Park publish “Random number generators: good ones are hard to find” in Communications of the ACM and propose the generator now known as MINSTD, which also carries the name Park–Miller.

3. 1993–2013

   Professor at Illinois Springfield

   He joins the University of Illinois at Springfield in 1993 as a professor of computer science and associate faculty in philosophy. He is editor-in-chief of IEEE Technology & Society from 2008 to 2011, and in 2009 he contributes to the fourth edition of Deborah G. Johnson's Computer Ethics: Analyzing Information Technology.

4. 2008–2017

   Ethics of artificial agents

   In 2008, he coauthors “The Ethics of Designing Artificial Agents” with Frances Grodzinsky and Marty J. Wolf in Ethics and Information Technology. In 2017, the three publish “This ‘Ethical Trap’ Is for Roboticists, Not Robots,” on artificial agent ethical decision making, in Science and Engineering Ethics, along with a commentary on Microsoft's Tay “experiment” in SIGCAS Computers and Society.

5. 2011

   The Weizenbaum Award

   He receives the 2011 Joseph Weizenbaum Award in Information and Computer Ethics from the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT). In 2011, he is also named a Fellow of the World Technology Network and a finalist for the World Technology Award in Ethics.

6. 2013–2014

   A professorship in St. Louis

   He moves to the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 2013 as Orthwein Endowed Professor for Lifelong Learning in the Sciences in the College of Education, a post in which he partners with the St. Louis Science Center. His coauthored paper “On robots as a genetically modified invasive species” is named Outstanding Paper of 2014 in the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society.

7. 2021–2025

   President of INSEIT

   In January 2021, he coauthors “AI Ethics: A Long History and a Recent Burst of Attention” in Computer with Jason Borenstein, Frances S. Grodzinsky, Ayanna Howard and Marty J. Wolf. In 2024, he publishes “Generative AI and Its Implications for Definitions of Trust” with Wolf and Grodzinsky and gives an IAFOR keynote on AI, aging and ethical issues. He becomes president of INSEIT in 2021 and is re-elected in the 2025 elections.

8. As of October 2026

   Founders Professor at UMSL

   He is a Founders Professor in UMSL's Department of Education Sciences and Professional Programs and holds the Orthwein Endowed Professorship for Lifelong Learning in the Sciences. His research areas include computer ethics, online education and software testing. He is also an emeritus professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Springfield.