Professor Emeritus Douglas Robert Stinson has received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from CS-Can | Info-Can, the national non-profit organization dedicated to representing computer science and the interests of the discipline across Canada. Since its inception in 2014, this prestigious award has been presented annually to distinguished academics in computer science departments, schools and faculties nationwide, celebrating their outstanding and sustained contributions to research, teaching and service.
“Congratulations to Doug on receiving this well-deserved recognition from CS-Can | Info-Can,” said Raouf Boutaba, University Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “His seminal contributions to combinatorial cryptography have shaped the field, and his research continues to inspire and influence generations of scholars.”
As part of the award, Professor Stinson will receive a plaque and an invitation to the CS-Can | Info-Can Awards Dinner, scheduled for November 10, 2025, at York University.
Professor Emeritus Stinson: A distinguished career in combinatorial cryptography
Born in Guelph, Ontario, Professor Emeritus Stinson is a leading Canadian researcher and educator in combinatorics and cryptography, a career defined by pioneering research, exemplary teaching, and dedicated service to the academic community. He received his Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in 1978, followed by a Master of Science in Mathematics from Ohio State University in 1980, and a PhD in Combinatorics and Optimization from the University of Waterloo in 1981.
Professor Emeritus Stinson began his academic career in 1981 as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba. He became an Assistant Professor in 1982, an Associate Professor in 1983, and Full Professor in 1986 at the same institution, where he was also an NSERC University Research Fellow. In 1990, he joined the University of Nebraska’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering as a Full Professor. He returned to Canada in 1998 to join Waterloo’s Department of Combinatorics and Optimization as the NSERC/Certicom Industrial Research Chair in Cryptography, a position he held until 2003. In 2002, he transferred to the School of Computer Science. He has held the title of Professor Emeritus at the Cheriton School of Computer Science since 2019.
Over his distinguished career, Professor Emeritus Stinson has been recognized with numerous awards and honours. Among them, he received the Hall Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications in 1994. At Waterloo, he was awarded a Mathematics Faculty Fellowship from 2001–2004 and a University Research Chair from 2005–2011. In 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his contributions to cryptography and combinatorics. In 2013, he was appointed a University Professor, one of Waterloo’s highest academic honours. More recently, in 2022, he received the Stanton Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and Its Applications for his lifetime contributions to advancing combinatorics. That same year, the Fields Institute in Toronto hosted Stinson66: New Advances in Designs, Codes and Cryptography, a weeklong conference celebrating his 66th birthday and his contributions to designs, codes and cryptography.
Professor Emeritus Stinson’s research in combinatorial cryptography focuses on using mathematical structures to construct systems for secure communication. These systems cannot be broken, even with infinite computational resources, and therefore remain secure regardless of computational or algorithmic advances that take place, including the development of practical quantum computers. Professor Emeritus Stinson has made foundational contributions to this area, with many considered seminal. His work has also had industrial application, including the use of Reed–Solomon codes in Blu-ray disc technology.
Professor Emeritus Stinson has mentored 12 postdoctoral fellows, 17 PhD students, and 16 master’s students, many of whom have gone on to successful academic careers. With his students and colleagues, he has authored nearly 400 conference and journal papers along with several influential books. Notably, Cryptography: Theory and Practice, now in its fourth edition, is the most widely used and influential graduate-level cryptography textbook worldwide since its initial publication in 1995. As of June 2025, his publications have been cited collectively almost 30,000 times, with an h-index of 75, according to Google Scholar.
Cheriton School of Computer Science Lifetime Achievement Awardees
Professor Emeritus Douglas Stinson is the 13th faculty member at the Cheriton School of Computer Science to receive CS-Can | Info-Can’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Past recipients with a Waterloo affiliation are Professor Jo Atlee (2023), Professor Robin Cohen (2022), Professor Renée J. Miller (2020), University Professor Ming Li (2020), Professor J. Wesley Graham (2019), University Professor Tamer Özsu (2018), Distinguished Professor Emeritus Don Cowan (2017), Professor Emeritus Ric Holt (2017), Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Brzozowski (2016), Distinguished Professor Emeritus Ian Munro (2016), Distinguished Professor Emeritus Alan George (2015), and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Frank Tompa (2015).