Areas of Expertise:

Richard Muller is Professor of Physics at the University of California at Berkeley, Faculty Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, President of Muller & Associates LLC, and a General Partner of the China Shale Fund.

Rich has been awarded the MacArthur Prize, the National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award, the Texas Instruments Foundation Founders Prize, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize. He was named by Newsweek as one of top 25 innovators in the US in all fields in 1989, and featured in Forbes Magazine in March 2009. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the California Academy of Sciences. He is the author of over 120 scientific articles and eight books, including Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines (Norton, 2008).

While Rich is best known for his work in astrophysics and geophysics, he also spent over a decade researching paleoclimate. His primary interest was in the Milankovitch cycles, and is the author of a technical book "Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes" (co-author: the late Gordon MacDonald), published by Springer, which emphasizes methods of mathematical climate analysis. He also published a series of papers on the subject in Nature, Science, Geology, Paleoceanography and elsewhere, and was a referee for the National Academy of Sciences on IPCC work. He is now focusing all of his research effort on recent climate, particularly the surface temperature records.

Rich has over three decades of high level advising to the US Government (Dept. of Energy, NASA, Dept. of Defense, others) on science and technology issues relating to energy and national security. He is also an advisor/consultant to many companies on energy and high-tech.

Richard has been married to Rosemary Muller for over 40 years, and has two daughters, Elizabeth and Melinda.

Recent Posts by Richard Muller

• Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?

Recent Comments by Richard Muller

• "Unless a discussion of global warming includes China, it is not on topic.  Any effort we take in the United States to reduce emissions is not going to"
  Obama’s EPA to Cost Americans Billions of Dollars and Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs
• "Fee and dividend is not going to work.  Imagine complete success: fee and dividend eliminates coal.  Then there is no money to distribute to the poor "
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "Mr. Miller, You are right that payments for externalities are inevitable, but alas, they can be deferred, and that is what is happening.  When you "
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "Unfortunately, renewables are cost competitive with coal only if you increase the cost of coal by including the externalities, e.g. through a carbon t"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "I agree with virtually everything you say.  But on one point, cost, we have to recognize that it is a very important issue for China. I do not believe"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "Some environmental organizations lump all fossil fuels together under the label "they cause the problem."  Such simplistic approaches make appeal to t"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "The article that says that natural gas vehicles are bad for the environment is guilty of what I call "pessimism bias", and also "optimism bias."  It a"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "By "far superior" I mean that it emits half to one-third of the greenhouse gases of the coal it replaces.  That means that instead of 30 to 50 years b"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "We can certainly stop imports of fuel to China and elsewhere in the developing world, but that could slow their economic growth and lead them to use e"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?
• "Why don't we all convert to natural gas autos?  In San Francisco, half of the taxis already are converted.  They did that to save money; the taxi driv"
  Can Shale Gas Limit Air Pollution?