Morgan G. Deters Ph.D.

Morgan G. Deters, Ph.D., 35, formerly of Bowling Green, Ohio, and more recently of Brooklyn, N.Y., died Saturday (Jan. 17, 2015) in Tobago, Trinidad. Morgan was in Tobago for a friend's wedding. On Saturday morning, the day after the wedding, several of the guests, mostly from the New York City area, were snorkeling in Buccoo Bay, a popular tourist location. About noon, Morgan was observed to be motionless in the water. He was pulled from the sea unconscious and, despite CPR, he could not be revived. He died at Scarborough General Hospital about an hour later. An autopsy confirmed that the cause of death was by drowning.

Morgan was born April 16, 1979, in Austin, Texas, the son of Dr. Donald and Lynn (Wyatt) Deters. In 1985, the family moved to Bowling Green, Ohio. Morgan attended South Main School and Bowling Green Junior and Senior High schools, graduating from Senior High in 1997. He attended Bowling Green State University and graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science. He then left Ohio and went to graduate school in computer science at Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned both his master's and Ph.D. degrees (2007). He continued his academic research at the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, until 2009, when he moved to New York. At the time of his death, he was a senior research scientist in the Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Morgan, who was well known locally, leaves behind friends in Bowling Green and all over the world. Many local residents will remember him as the author of "The Rise of Bowling Green," a short comprehensive history of Bowling Green that started as a high school writing assignment (published in 1996). In high school and college, he worked regularly at the Corner Grill on Main Street, first as a waiter and then as a grill cook. He often joked later that he met nearly all of Bowling Green's residents there. This cooking experience contributed to his continuing interest in food and "gourmet" cooking. As a student at BGSU, Morgan worked for Computer Services, installing computer programs and troubleshooting computer problems.

Morgan made many lasting personal friends in St. Louis and Europe, maintaining connections with many of them. He was part of a network of professional collaborators in computer science in this country and around the world. He was in demand at many international computer science meetings and conferences, recently returning from conferences and speaking engagements in Switzerland, Germany and Paris. Dr. Deters was scheduled to return to Paris and Oxford, England, in early February and to Barcelona in August.

His main interests and accomplishments were in a research area known as formal methods, which consists of techniques for applying mathematical reasoning to make computer systems more reliable and secure. For those knowledgeable in the field, Morgan's expertise was in an emerging area called satisfiability modulo theories (SMT), a set of methods for automating the application of mathematical reasoning to computer systems. Morgan was a designer and lead developer of an award-winning SMT system called CVC4, which is currently used by academic research groups around the world and has been incorporated into industrial tools at top technology companies. He and his close collaborators' research was supported by the Air Force Office of Sponsored Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, Intel Corp. and Google.

Morgan had many outside interests. He enjoyed cooking and arranging social gatherings around homemade breads, pizzas, tapas, desserts and gourmet meals, often inspired by his mother or Julia Child. New York City was a great playground to indulge these interests, and friends began to refer to his apartment as "Pad 80," mimicking names often associated with trendy dining spots in Brooklyn. He believed in good health and was an advocate of physical fitness. He took up running a few years back and made several five- to 10-mile runs along the length of Manhattan's west side.

Morgan is survived by his parents of Bowling Green; his paternal grandfather, Marcellus (Marce) Deters, of Quincy; aunts and uncles, Dr. David and wife, Lynn (Tenhouse), Deters, Margaret (Margie) Thompson and Jeanne (Phil) Soebbing, all of Quincy, Dianne (Dr. Jim) Wyllie of Monte Sereno, Calif., Joan (Chris) Hunt of Champaign, David Wyatt of Crownpoint, N.M., and Cindy (Tony) Kordecki of Bristol, Wis.; and eight cousins, Dr. Brian (Chelsea) Soebbing of Baton Rouge, La., Dr. Steven Soebbing of Cumberland, Md., Kevin Wyllie of Portland, Ore., Sara Deters of Columbia, Mo., Lauren Hunt of Champaign and Cassandra Kordecki, Christopher Kordecki and Annie Kordecki, all of the Bristol area. There are many more members of Morgan's extended family in and around Quincy and elsewhere.

Morgan was preceded in death by his paternal grandmother, Marcella (Freiburg) Deters; a cousin, Christina Kordecki, of Bristol; and a great aunt, Rachel Kitzman, of Gurnee.

SERVICES: There will be no services, but there will be public and private receptions arranged in Bowling Green, New York City and Quincy in the coming weeks.

MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, send condolences to his parents in Bowling Green (regular mail or use donlyn439@gmail.com). Facebook friends can leave comments on Facebook (mdeters).

WEBSITE: A website, mainly intended for professional associates, has been set up by colleagues at New York University, but the site can be viewed by others. The site address is: http://cvc4.cs.nyu.edu/web/in-memoriam-morgan-deters/. Donations will be accepted via that site to support travel to conferences for computer science students (Morgan Deters Travel Award). Other memorials on Morgan's behalf will be announced and made available at a later date.

Condolences may be expressed at whig.com.