Samuel Merrill III is a mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 and political scientist best known for his work on alternative voting systems, voter behavior, party competition, and arbitration

Arbitration

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...

.

Merrill was raised in Bogalusa, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. He received his Bachelor's degree from Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

 and his Ph.D. from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

. Merrill was a professor of mathematics and statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 at Wilkes University

Wilkes University

Wilkes University is a private, non-denominational American university located in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students...

 until he retired in 2004.

Samuel Merrill is the author of three books on political science:

• Making Multicandidate Elections More Democratic (1988, Princeton University Press)
• A Unified Theory of Voting with Bernard Grofman
  Bernard Grofman
  Bernard Norman Grofman is a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine.From the University of Chicago he received a B.S. in mathematics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science...
  
   (1999, Cambridge University Press)
• A Unified Theory of Party Competition with James Adams
  James Adams
  James Adams is the name of:* James Adams , British diplomat* James Adams , English cricketer* James Adams , Scottish footballer...
  
  and Bernard Grofman (2005, Cambridge University Press)