Philip G. Miles, internationally renowned researcher, teacher

Miles

Dr. Philip G. Miles, 84, a professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo who completed 51 years of teaching at UB, died Friday, July 13, 2007 in his Williamsville home.

Dr. Miles was one of the world's foremost scholars in the field of experimental mycology - the study of the genetics and biology of fungi.

He was a graduate of The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., and Yale University where he played varsity basketball and tennis.

During World War II, he served for three years in the Army Air Corps.

He attended graduate school at Indiana University where he received a doctorate in botany, specializing in mycology, after which he accepted a position as research associate at the University of Chicago. That was followed by a three-year appointment as a Harvard research fellow in biology. In 1956, he became an assistant professor in UB's biology department.

In 1963-64, Dr. Miles was a Fulbright Research Scholar and spent a year at Okayama University in Japan.

In 1970, he received the first long-term Visiting Scientist Award under the U.S. National Science Foundation/National Science Council of China joint program

and spent one year at National

Taiwan University and Academia Sinica. He was also a guest scientist at Tottori Mycological Institute in Tottori, Japan in the summers of 1977 and 1978.

In 1978, he was visiting professor for one semester at National Taiwan University and spent six months as a visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Miles strongly favored international cooperation and the exchange of scientific knowledge. He was invited more than 10 times to be a visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, often collaborating with Professor S.T. Chang.

In 1985, Dr. Miles was an exchange professor in Beijing, China, under the auspices of UB and the Beijing Municipal University Exchange Program.

In 1986, he visited China with Professor S. T. Chang, traveling to five cities in five weeks in Hebei and Shanxi. The trip was sponsored

by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he traveled widely in China, giving lectures and participating in workshops and seminars on basic mycology and the cultivation of edible mushrooms.

Dr. Miles served on many university wide committees, was a member of the Faculty Senate, and was chairman of the Department of Biology for six years.

He was a past president of the Society of the Sigma Xi, UB Chapter and president of the World Society of Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products. He was the author of 45 scientific papers and five books and an editor for "Mushroom Journal of the Tropics," "Micologia Neotropical Applicada," and "Micologia Applicada International."

Dr. Miles received the Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching (1998), UB Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (2003), Milton Plesur Award for Excellence in Teaching (2004), and was an honoree at the University Celebration for Academic Excellence (2006).

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Philip G. Miles Scholarship Fund, University at Buffalo Foundation, Amherst, N.Y. 14260.

A memorial service will be held in August.