Ian J. Miller, is the Reischauer Institute Professor of Environmental History as well as an Affiliate Professor in the Department of the History of Science and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Since July 2020, he has also served as Faculty Dean of Cabot House.

A historian of Japan and its modern empire, Professor Miller focuses his research on the cultural dimensions of scientific, technological, and environmental change, including transnational approaches to environmental history, the global history of natural disasters (especially tsunami), urban ecologies, comparative imperialisms, philosophies of action and agency, digital humanities, and the interdisciplinary study of embodiment, disease, and especially public health.

His current book project in progress, Tokyo Electric: Japan in the Age of Global Energy, investigates energy and electricity in the making of modern Tokyo, based on materials found in the previously closed archives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan’s first electric company. He is also a co-editor of Oceanic Japan: The Archipelago in Pacific and Global History, was published in November 2024 by University of Hawaii Press.

Prior to joining Harvard, Professor Miller earned his B.A. in History and Japan Studies from Earlham College and his Ph.D in History from Columbia University.