Scott Merrill
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Plant and Soil Science
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Gund Fellow
BIO
Dr. Scott Merrill is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science, a Gund Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment and the Managing Director of the Social Ecological Gaming and Simulation (SEGS) laboratory at the University of Vermont. Merrill is a systems ecologist specializing in the study of human behavior and decision-making in social-ecological systems. Merrill uses a broad range of tools to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, such as serious games, surveys, and focus groups, and uses a variety of statistical tools to analyze and extend inference using these data; tools ranging from simple mixed effects modeling to complex systems modeling such as agent-based modeling. Merrill collaborates with numerous interdisciplinary research groups and collaborators in the development of serious games to collect data used to understand human behavior and decision making. Serious games are a novel, and vastly under-utilized tool to study social-ecological systems. An important goal of his work has always been the creation of applicable and predictive models to inform policy interventions, develop decision support systems and suggest best management practices.
Area(s) of expertise
Landscape ecology, Climate change, Population modeling, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Social-ecological systems, Monte Carlo simulations, Systems ecology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Spatiotemporal modeling
Bio
Dr. Scott Merrill is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science, a Gund Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment and the Managing Director of the Social Ecological Gaming and Simulation (SEGS) laboratory at the University of Vermont. Merrill is a systems ecologist specializing in the study of human behavior and decision-making in social-ecological systems. Merrill uses a broad range of tools to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, such as serious games, surveys, and focus groups, and uses a variety of statistical tools to analyze and extend inference using these data; tools ranging from simple mixed effects modeling to complex systems modeling such as agent-based modeling. Merrill collaborates with numerous interdisciplinary research groups and collaborators in the development of serious games to collect data used to understand human behavior and decision making. Serious games are a novel, and vastly under-utilized tool to study social-ecological systems. An important goal of his work has always been the creation of applicable and predictive models to inform policy interventions, develop decision support systems and suggest best management practices.
Areas of Expertise
Landscape ecology, Climate change, Population modeling, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Social-ecological systems, Monte Carlo simulations, Systems ecology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Spatiotemporal modeling