Remembering: Roberta White-Miller, PhD

Roberta White-Miller, PhD, emeritus faculty member of the UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology, died in April at the age of 95.

Dr. White-Miller, identified in her obituary as the first clinical virologist in the state of Nebraska, served on the UNMC faculty for many years. She and her husband, the late Norman Miller, PhD, established the Dr. Norman G. Miller and Dr. Roberta J. White-Miller Medical Microbiology Library Fund.

Roberta White-Miller, PhD, with colleagues James Newland, MD, James Landmark, MD, and Charles Kuszynski, PhD

Dr. White-Miller was director of the diagnostic virology laboratory at a time when the field was still evolving, said Samuel Cohen, MD, PhD, former chair of the UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology.

Dr. Cohen remembers a visit from Dr. White-Miller when he was hospitalized, battling pneumonia and running a 104-degree fever.

"She was extraordinarily excited as she showed me the results of my influenza culture and declared that I was the first positive test that year," he said.

When Peter Iwen, PhD, professor in the department, joined UNMC in 1978 as a research scientist, he remembers Dr. White-Miller not only welcoming him but inviting him to her lab to learn more about diagnostic virology.

"As a recent college graduate, my interest in the biological sciences had only begun, and I had little knowledge of the science of virology, so the activities in her laboratory were intriguing to me," Dr. Iwen said. "At that time, the science of virology was still in the early developmental stages, and Dr. White had developed programs around the diagnosis of the influenza viruses and the arboviruses, both causing diseases that were endemic in Nebraska."

At a time when molecular diagnostic tests — now the mainstay of viral diagnostics — had not yet been discovered, Dr. White-Miller used cutting-edge techniques for serological testing and viral culture, he said.

Dr. Iwen remembers Dr. White-Miller as a "devoted teacher" who not only encouraged him in his education but who maintained contact and continued to be interested in his career even after leaving UNMC.

In addition to being an excellent teacher, Dr. Cohen said, Dr. White-Miller was dedicated to her work in the diagnostic lab.

"She and her husband, Norm Miller, PhD, were long-term, dedicated faculty members of the department of medical microbiology and then in the merged departments of pathology and microbiology," Dr. Cohen said. "In addition to active participation in medical school teaching, they also were active in graduate student education, medical technology student education and in teaching pathology residents.

"We miss them both," he said.