Richard A. Muller

Richard A. Muller is a physicist and emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Muller began his career as a graduate student under Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, conducting particle physics experiments and working with bubble chambers. Initially trained in elementary particle physics, Muller later expanded his research to astrophysics and geophysics, contributing to a range of scientific disciplines including cosmology, climate science, and isotope analysis.

Muller is the inventor of the Accelerator Mass-Spectroscopy Method, a technique widely used in isotope dating, geology, and forensic science. He played a significant role in the study of the cosmic microwave background, detecting dipole asymmetry, and originated the Nemesis Theory of mass extinction. Muller also discovered the inclination cycle in paleoclimate studies. He was part of the team recognized with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the Supernova Cosmology Project. Muller is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his honors include the Texas Instruments Founders Prize, the NSF Alan T. Waterman Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship.

Muller is widely recognized for his course and book, "Physics for Future Presidents." The book, "Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines," explains physics concepts relevant to issues such as terrorism, energy, and climate change, and received the Northern California Book Award for General Nonfiction. His "Physics for Future Presidents" lecture series, available on YouTube and in book form, presents modern qualitative physics to a broad audience. Muller also authored "Energy for Future Presidents" and "Now: The Physics of Time," which explores relativity, quantum physics, and proposes a new theory of time.

Muller's work on climate change includes his analysis of data from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, concluding that human activity is the primary cause of global warming. Together with his daughter Elizabeth, Muller founded Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit organization focused on climate science and the global surface temperature record. He has testified before the House science committee regarding this research, which involved reanalyzing two centuries of global land temperature data. Muller and Elizabeth Muller also co-founded Deep Isolation, a company dedicated to nuclear waste disposal in deep boreholes, reflecting his ongoing engagement with environmental science and energy policy.