Stanley Miller was a professor of chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, who as a graduate student of Harold Urey at the University of Chicago, carried out the first practical investigation in prebiotic synthesis using a simulated reducing atmosphere (see Miller-Urey Experiment). For the rest of his career, he continued to carry out research into the origin of life on Earth and drew attention in recent years to the possibility that certain key biochemicals, including cytosine and uracil, may have been manufactured under "dry beach" conditions.