Distinguished Professor Emeritus Don Cowan and Emeritus Ric Holt among six nationally honoured recipients.
Water Institute member and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Don Cowan and Professor Emeritus Richard C. “Ric” Holt have received the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award in Computer Science from CS-Can/Info-Can, the national organization of Canadian computer science departments, schools and faculties.
Conferred annually, these prestigious awards recognize outstanding and sustained achievement in research, teaching and service.
“It’s wonderful to see Don and Ric’s accomplishments recognized by CS-Can/Info-Can,” said Mark Giesbrecht, director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “Congratulations to these two distinguished pioneers of computer science who have contributed immeasurably to both the field and to the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science through their years of leadership, scholarship, teaching and service.”
The 2017 awards will be presented at the annual CS-Can/Info-Can Awards Dinner, which will be held at York University in Toronto on May 7, 2018.
Distinguished
Professor
Emeritus
Don
Cowan is
a
Canadian
pioneer
in
computer
science.
Shortly
after
completing
his
PhD
in
1965,
Don
became
head
of
the
Computer
Science
Division
of
the
Mathematics
Department
at
the
University
of
Waterloo.
In
1967,
he
became
Chair
of
the
Department
of
Applied
Analysis
and
Computer
Science,
a
new
academic
unit
that
launched
with
only
four
faculty
members
of
professorial
rank
in
computer
science.
Within five years, Don expanded the department to 26 research faculty and five lecturers. Although it has been close to half a century since he served as department chair, Don set the tone that has established the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science as Canada’s largest and best-known computer science program.
Written by Joe Petrik, Cheriton School of Computer Science.
This is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.