MERL Research People

MERL is our people, no more, no less.
- Richard (Dick) Waters

In the 2 years after October 2006, over two thirds of MERL Research Laboratory (MRL) people have left MERL, for an annual retention rate of 55% (among technical staff, 48%). By way of comparison, only 6 of 24 people left in the four years preceding October 2006... and admirable 93% annual retention rate.

MRL is here defined by the official list from October 15, 2006. Italics indicate staff with at least part-time managerial or administrative duties in October of 2006.

The Fallen

• Joe Marks, Ph.D. (1) (10/06/06)
• James L. Frankel, Ph.D. (10/12/06)
• Baback Moghaddam, Ph.D.(11/14/06)
• Candace Sidner, Ph.D. (12/21/06)
• Jeff Proctor (1/3/2007?)
• Christopher Lee, Ph.D. (2/21/07))
• Wojciech Matusik, Ph.D. (4/25/07)
• Charles Rich, Ph.D. (6/29/07)
• Paul Dietz, Ph.D. (7/13/07)
• Ben Vigoda, Ph.D. (8/1/07 ?))
• Hanspeter Pfister, Ph.D. (8/1/07)
• Shai Avidan, Ph.D. (8/16/07)
• Paris Smaragdis, Ph.D. (9/18/07)
• Jonathan Westhues (10/2/2007)
• Ramesh Raskar, Ph.D. (12/7/2007)
• Chia Shen, Ph.D. (3/15/08)
• Darren Leigh, Ph.D. (3/31/08)
• Eric Chan (3/31/08?)
• Paul Beardsley, Ph.D. (5/31/08)
• Christopher R. Wren, Ph.D. (9/30/08)
• Bhiksha Raj, Ph.D. (11/15/08)

Other Notable Departures

MERL people who worked very closely with MRL folken, or were part of MRL at some point in the past:

• Kathy Ryall, Ph.D. (11/02/07)
• Jeroen van Barr (5/31/08)

Still Standing

• Amit Agrawal, Ph.D.
• John Barnwell
• Matthew Brand, Ph.D.
• Joseph Katz, Ph.D.
• Keisuke Kojima, Ph.D.
• Janet McAndless
• Ron Perry
• Jonathan Yedidia, Ph.D.
• William Yerazunis, Ph.D.

New Arrivals

There have been some good hires at MERL in the past couple years, but they cannot necessarily be said to be "MERL Research People" since MERL Research was folded into the larger MERL organization and re-factored along technology areas on June 6, 2007. As far as I can remember, Jonathan Westhues was the only person hired full-time at MRL between October 2006 and June 2007. He is listed above because he was already a member of the MRL family as a consultant in October 2006. He was hired into a full-time position at the end of 2006.