Ian M. Mills is Emeritus Professor of Chemical Spectroscopy at the University of Reading. He is also Emeritus President of the CCU at the Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures.

He was born June 9, 1930, in Sonning, Berkshire, England. He obtained the bachelor’s degree from the University of Reading in 1951, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford in 1954. At Oxford, he worked under Professor H. W. Thompson, making an investigation of the infrared spectra of complex molecules. From 1954 to 1956, Professor Bryce Crawford at the University of Minnesota had him as a collaborator. The year 1956–7 was spent at the University of Cambridge working with Professor H. C. Longuet-Higgins. After this, he went to his present post at the University of Reading.

He has published almost 200 papers. These papers deal with various phases of spectroscopy, both experimental and theoretical and beyond.s He has dealt extensively with vibration-rotation molecular bands, considering both their locations and intensities.

Mills is a Fellow of OSA, and recipient of the 1960 Adolph Lomb Medal and the 1981 Ellis R. Lippincott Award.