William Isaac Miller, a PhD student in Computer Science at UMass Boston, died in an automobile accident on the morning of December 28, 2010, near the town of Playas de Rosarito in Baja California, together with his mother, María Eugenia Aida Rodarte. Bill was 25 years old. He graduated from UMB with Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics in Spring 2010. Bill had the highest GPA in the major for any undergraduate student graduating in Computer Science in the 2009/2010 academic year and he received the Computer Science Alumni Award for Excellence in Software Engineering.

In summer 2010, he worked on an NSF (National Science Foundation) funded research project in Houston, Texas with Professor Wei Ding of the Computer Science Department and in Fall 2010, Bill began his PhD studies here under Ding’s direction.

Bill was a smart and dedicated scholar. He was very helpful to students in the department and was very popular with them. He was one of our best students and will be missed by his fellow students, his advisor and all of us in the Computer Science Department.

Bill is survived by his father Richard and a younger brother Timothy. Our sympathy goes out to them in this difficult time. The funeral was held in Mexico.

Wei Ding ([email protected]) is holding a memorial service in Spring of 2011, although a date has not been set. Nada Attar ([email protected]) is organizing donations to memorialize Bill.