In 1891 Lash Miller became a demonstrator at the University of Toronto and was again in 1892 with Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, where he earned a second doctorate (in physical chemistry).
[3][4] His greatest scientific strength lay in his mastery of the chemical thermodynamics of Willard Gibbs, learned from Ostwald at Leipzig.
His greatest weakness (also learned from Ostwald) was his refusal to use or teach the atomic and molecular theories that formed the mainstream of 20th-century chemical thinking.
With Ostwald he devoted much of his scientific efforts to implement Gibbs' very theoretical concepts on a laboratory scale.
Lash Miller did research on many areas of physical chemistry; in particular, he extended Gibbs' treatment of multicomponent systems.