Home > News > Turning Gold Dust Into Clean Air March 20th, 2008
Turning Gold Dust Into Clean Air At age 82, William Miller might
be excused for kicking back, playing with grandkids or simply
puttering around. He's doing none of those things. Instead,
Miller is leading a start-up with two big ambitions: to clean up
diesel emissions and to spread a new approach to designing a key
ingredient in countless chemical reactions, namely catalysts. "I
like to be an explorer. This is an exploration," declares
Miller. And that approach--the exploration of both a new
technology and of the opportunity for using that nascent tool--
is at the core of genuine innovation. Over the course of his
53-year career, Miller has been a computer scientist, chairman
of a major software maker, an adviser to both venture
capitalists and government leaders, and a teacher. These days,
he is chairman and co-founder of Nanostellar, a four-year-old,
22-person start-up in Redwood City, Calif. Miller is too savvy
to use the hyperbolic language co