Biography for Deane W. Merrill

In November 1997 Deane Merrill retired from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California. From 1998 until 2006 he and his wife Chris Morben operated a Bed and Breakfast in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. From 2001 until 2006 Deane taught math and science at the Mohawk Trail Regional High School in Shelburne Falls. In July 2006 Deane and Chris sold the B&B and moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Since 2006 Deane is teaching physics and math at Asheville-Buncombe Community College and at South College, both in Asheville. Deane continues to maintain an active Internet presence, and is available for consultation and projects in the following areas:

PAREP:

1976-1995: Co-Principal Investigator of Populations at Risk to Environmental Pollution (PAREP) project, funded 1976-78 by Environmental Protection Agency and 1978-95 by Department of Energy (DOE). Collaboration between LBNL Information and Computing Sciences Division (ICSD) and University of California, Berkeley (UCB) School of Public Health. Over 20 published papers in biostatistics and epidemiology journals. Nationwide data base containing demographic variables, air quality, mortality and cancer incidence data. Analysis of relationships between human health, environmental hazards, and socioeconomic status. Techniques for geographic statistical analysis, including DEMP (see below).

DEMP:

1985-1998: Developer of Density Equalizing Map Projections (DEMP), i.e. computerized cartograms. Boundaries of subregions are automatically adjusted so that population density is everywhere equal. If disease risk is constant, cases of disease plotted on such a transformed map should be randomly and evenly distributed. If disease clusters are observed, they can be easily identified and quantitatively analyzed statistically.

SEEDIS:

1975-1997: Principal architect and implementor of Socio-Economic Environmental Demographic Information System (SEEDIS). SEEDIS integrated and documented about 100 major public data files of the 1970's and 1980's. It is still the most complete integrated source of 1970 and 1980 U.S. Census data. From 1975 to 1985 SEEDIS was developed under funding from the Department of Labor. In 1996-97 SEEDIS was moved to the U.S. Census Bureau; the SEEDIS data will be provided in future on-line systems being developed there.

CD-ROM Information System and 1990 Census LOOKUP:

1992-1995: Principal architect and implementor of CD-ROM Information System and 1990 Census LOOKUP. System provided public Internet access to 400 CD's (200 GB) of socioeconomic and geophysical data, including 1990 Census data. Collaboration of LBNL, UC Data Archive and Technical Assistance (UC DATA), UCB Library, and U.S. Bureau of the Census. In 1995 the CD-ROM system was moved to the UC Berkeley Library, and LOOKUP was adopted by the Census Bureau's Web site for online delivery of 1990 Census data.

CEDR:

1992-1997: Participant in Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) project, begun in 1990 in order to provide DOE epidemiologic research data (primarily radiation exposure and mortality data) to DOE and non-DOE researchers.

Academic Background:

A.B. in Physics, Williams College (Mass), 1960. Class rank: 3/250.
M.S. in Physics, UC Berkeley (California), 1962.
Ph.D. in High Energy Nuclear Physics, UC Berkeley, 1967.
Dr.P.H. in Public Health, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 1998.

Other Interests:

Historical geographical data.
18 years with Slavyanka Men's Russian Chorus (San Francisco).
Russian, French, and German language.
Genealogy.

Work and Home Address:

96 Beverly Road
Asheville, NC 28805
tel: 828-505-0763
e-mail: dwmerrill@charter.net

Key Words:

software; geographic data; census; environment; health; mortality; cancer incidence; air quality; statistical analysis; CD-ROM; WWW; DEMP; density equalizing map projections.

---

go to short biographical sketch
go to biography and selected publications

back to Deane Merrill's Web page

---

biog4.html 7/24/07 in:
dennie2::\c:\dwmerrill\public_html\biog4.html
http://merrill.olm.net/biog4.html