Dr. Derek Corneil

Biography

Derek Corneil joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto in the fall of 1964, the inaugural year of the department's graduate program. He received his BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics from Queen's University in 1964 and completed his MA (1965) and PhD (1968) degrees at the University of Toronto under the supervision of William Kahan and Kelly Gotlieb, respectively. He was awarded an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) in 1968-69, working under the joint supervision of Jaap Seidel and Edsger Dijkstra. Corneil started his faculty position at the University of Toronto in January 1970. He has served as chair of the department from July 1985 to June 1990, director of research initiatives for the Faculty of Arts and Science from July 1991 to March 1998, and acting vice president of research and international relations in September to December 1993. Corneil was also the academic coordinator for the Bell Canada University Labs at the University of Toronto from April 1998 to June 1999. He retired in July 2010 and is currently a Professor Emeritus in both the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Mathematics. His research primarily focuses on graph theory, with interests spanning theoretical, algorithmic, and application issues, particularly in graph searching. Throughout his career, Corneil has supervised or co-supervised the completion of 26 PhD and 35 MSc theses, with doctoral graduates currently holding academic and industrial positions in eight countries and six provinces in Canada. He is the author or co-author of approximately 100 refereed research publications.

Research Interests