Deane W. Merrill

Biography and Selected Publications

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, Massachusetts.  In July 2006 he and his wife sold the B&B and moved to Asheville, North Carolina.  Since 2006, he is teaching physics and math at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and at South College, both in Asheville.  Deane maintains 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.

Teaching experience:

2001-2006: science and math, Mohawk Trail Regional High School in Buckland, Massachusetts
2006-: physics and math, Asheville-Buncombe Community College, Asheville, North Carolina
2006-: physics and math, South College, Asheville, North Carolina
2006-: private tutoring in science and math

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
(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.

Selected Publications

McCarthy, J.; Benson, W.; Yen, A.; Merrill, D.; Marcus, A.; Gey, F.; Holmes, H.; Quong, C. 1982. SEEDIS: A Research and Development Project on Social, Economic, Environmental and Demographic Information Systems. Computer Graphics World 5:35-44.

Selvin, S.; Ernster, V. L.; Merrill, D.; Sacks, S.; Holly, E. 1982. Socioeconomic Status and Cancers of the Larynx, Lung, Esophagus, Gum and Mouth. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 69: 773-776.

Selvin, S.; Merrill, D.; Sacks, S. 1982. An Alternative to Ecologic Regression Analysis of Mortality Rates. Amer. J. Epidemiol. 115:617-623.

Selvin, S.; Levin, L.; Merrill, D.; Winkelstein, W., Jr. 1983. Selected Epidemiological Observations of Cell-specific Leukemia Mortality in the United States, 1969-1977. Amer. J. Epidemiol. 117:140-152.

Selvin, S.; Merrill, D.; Wong, L.; Sacks, S. T. 1984. Ecologic Regression Analysis and the Study of the Influence of Air Quality on Mortality. Environ. Health Perspect. 54:333-340.

Ernster, V. L.; Sacks, S. T.; Holly, E. A.; Wong, L.; Merrill, D. W.; Selvin, S. 1985. U.S. Cancer Incidence Rates by Sex, Race, and Age: Graphics of SEER Program Data, 1973-1977; July 1984; American Cancer Society Monograph, 1985.

Selvin, S.; Shaw, G.; Schulman, J.; Merrill, D. W. 1987. Spatial Distribution of Disease: Three Case Studies. Revised Version: JNCI 79:417-423.

Ernster, V. L.; Selvin, S.; Sacks, S. T.; Ragland, K. E.; Merrill, D. W. 1988. U.S. Cancer Incidence Rates by Sex, Race, and Age: Graphics of SEER Program Data, 1978 to 1984; American Cancer Society Monograph, 1988.

Ragland, K. E.; Selvin, S.; Merrill, D. W. 1988. The Onset of Decline in Ischemic Heart Disease Mortality in the United States. Am. J. Epidemiol. 127:516-531.

Schulman, J.; Selvin, S.; Merrill, D. W. 1988. Density Equalized Map Projections: A Method for Analyzing Clustering Around a Fixed Point. Statistics in Medicine 7:491-505.

Selvin, S.; Merrill, D.; Schulman, J.; Sacks, S.; Bedell, L.; Wong, L. 1988. Transformations of Maps to Investigate Clusters of Disease. Soc. Sci. Med. 26:215-221.

Shaw, G. M.; Selvin, S.; Swan, S. H.; Merrill, D.; Schulman, J. 1988. An Examination of Three Disease Clustering Methodologies. Int. J. Epidemiol. 17:913-919.

White, M. C.; Selvin, S.; Merrill, D. W. 1989. A Study of Multiple Causes of Death in California: 1955 and 1980. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 42:355-365.

Schulman, J.; Selvin, S.; Shaw, G.; Merrill, D. 1990. Detection of Excess Disease Near an Exposure Point: A Case Study. Arch. Environ. Health. 45:168-174.

Ragland, K. E.; Selvin, S.; Merrill, D. W. 1991. Black-white Differences in Stage Specific Cancer Survival: Analysis of Seven Selected Sites. Am. J. of Epidemiol. 133:672-682.

Selvin, S.; Merrill, D. W.; Schulman, J. 1992. Distance and Risk Measures for the Analysis of Spatial Data: A Study of Three Childhood Cancers. Soc. Sci. Med. 34(7):769-777.

Rizzardi, M. A.; Mohr, M. S.; Merrill, D. W.; Selvin, S. 1993. Interfacing U.S. Census Map Files with Statistical Graphics Software: Applications and Use in Epidemiology. Statistics in Medicine 12:1953-1964.

Selvin, S.; Schulman, J.; Merrill, D. 1993. Interpoint Squared Distance as a Measure of Spatial Clustering. Social Science and Medicine 36(8):1011-1016.

Merrill D, Parker N, Gey F and Stuber C. 1995. The University of California CD-ROM Information System. Communications of the ACM 38(4) pp.51-52 (1995). http://parep2.lbl.gov/mdocs/cacm9504/final.html .

Merrill DW, Selvin S, Close ER and Holmes HH. 1996. Use of Density Equalizing Map Projections (DEMP) in the Analysis of Childhood Cancer in Four California Counties. Statistics in Medicine, Vol. 15, 1837-1848 (1996). http://parep2.lbl.gov/pdocs/cdc9510/reprint.html .

Merrill DW, Parker NG, Holmes HH, Stuber C and Gregg VJ. 1996. 1990 U.S. Census LOOKUP: Mining a Mountain of Data. D-lib magazine, March 1996. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march96/merrill/03merrill.html .

Selvin S, Merrill DW, Erdmann C, White M and Ragland K. 1998. Breast Cancer Detection: Maps of 2 San Francisco Bay Area Counties. American Journal of Public Health Vol. 88(8):1186-1192.

Merrill D.W. 1998. Density Equalizing Map Projections (Cartograms) in Public Health Applications. Dr.P.H. dissertation, Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, May 1998. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report LBNL-41624. http://library.lbl.gov/docs/LBNL/416/24/HTML/index.html .

Lea CS, Buffler PA, Durst MJ, Merrill DW and Selvin S. 1999. Describing Cancer Mortality among Employees at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Environment International, in press 1999.

Merrill DW. 2001. Use of a density equalizing map projection in analyzing childhood cancer in four California counties. Statistics in Medicine 2001; 20:1499-1513. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/80002764/ABSTRACT. Preprint location: http://merrill.olm.net/pdocs/cdc9911/simdwm2.html.

Khalakdina A, Selvin S, Merrill DW, Erdmann CA, Colford JM. 2003. Analysis of the spatial distribution of cryptosporidiosis in AIDS patients in San Franciso using density equalizing map projections (DEMP).  Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health 206, 553-561. http://www.urbanfischer.de/journals/intjhyg.

Selvin, Steve and Merrill, Deane W. 2002. Adult Leukemia: A Spatial Analysis.  Epidemiology, Vol. 13, No. 2. (Mar., 2002), pp. 151-156.  http://merrill.olm.net/pdocs/adult%20leukemia,%20a%20spatial%20analysis.pdf.

 

 

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