PETER LYMAN, 66 Professor, researcher
Peter Lyman, a professor whose research measured the staggering amount of information that pervades peoples' everyday lives, died July 2 at his Berkeley, Calif., home. He had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
Dr. Lyman was a professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley's School of Information.
Dr. Lyman's oft-cited 2004 study, "How Much Information?" - undertaken with his colleague Hal Varian - found that the quantity of new information stored on paper, analog and digital media worldwide increased a combined 30 percent each year from 1999 to 2002.
According to the study, printing all the new material saved in 2002 alone would fill half a million libraries the size of the Library of Congress.
Dr. Lyman told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2004 that he hoped the study would help provide perspective on why people feel overwhelmed by the avalanche of information in their lives.