Ian Jared Miller is a historian of modern Japan. His research is primarily concerned with imperialism and the cultural dimensions of scientific, medical, and environmental change. He earned his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University in 2005, arriving at Harvard in 2007. He has been a postdoctoral fellow in the Expanding East Asian Studies Program (ExEAS) at Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University. Professor Miller's current book project, The Nature of the Beast, introduces readers to the cultural and environmental history of Tokyo's Imperial Zoological Gardens, Japan's first zoo, opened in 1882. The zoo was a microcosm of changing attitudes towards empire and the natural world in modern Japan. He is also investigating the global history of tsunami and co-editing the first collection of essays on Japan's environmental history in English with Professors Brett L. Walker and Julia Adeney Thomas. Research and teaching interests range from comparative imperialism and the global history of exhibition to the history of natural history and the interdisciplinary study of embodiment, disease, and especially public health.

In addition to working with students in the History Department, Professor Miller is also a member of the Standing Committee on History and East Asian Languages (HEAL). The HEAL program is designed to accommodate the particular needs of Ph.D. students who desire a more language-intensive program of study of East Asian history.