Earl K. Miller was born and raised in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, one of two siblings—the other being his identical twin. His mother was a homemaker; his father an accountant. As a child, Miller was interested in science and continuously performed well in science classes in school. He entered Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, originally pursuing a degree in biology (and undertaking pre-medical coursework). After taking advice to do research in order to better his chances of getting into medical school, Miller volunteered to work in Richard M. Vardaris's psychology lab for his senior thesis. Vardaris was doing work on memory in the hippocampus, and, as Miller noted, once he started doing experiments and collecting neurophysiology data, he "fell in love" with research; Miller switched his major to psychology so that Vardaris could be his advisor. He matriculated at Princeton University for his graduate studies, ultimately working in the laboratory of Charles G. Gross studying the visual cortex, though his research in neuroscience evolved from object recognition to cognition; during this time Miller met his wife, a psychologist who later worked for the American Psychological Association. From Princeton Miller undertook postdoctoral work with Robert Desimone at the National Institutes of Health, transitioning from studying vision to studying the cognitive operations that operate on sensory information; he had a number of publications in top tier journals come out of this work. He moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts upon accepting a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; he focused his lab on cognitive neuroscience and executive brain control. The remainder of the interview with Miller focuses on what he believes are the practical applications of his research; the future of his research in cross-translational neurophysiology (from gene to system level); and his professional responsibilities. The interview concludes with his thoughts on the peer-review process; the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences; competition and collaboration in science; experimenting on living animals; and the privatization of scientific research.