Nicholas Joseph Cercone

DEC 18, 1946-DEC 6, 2015

Nick died peacefully with his wife Thanyalak by his side. The immediate cause of his death appears to have been heart failure.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Nick was devoted to his city's sports teams throughout his life. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1975 at the University of Alberta, he soon began his illustrious career at Simon Fraser University, where he was Chair of Computer Science (1980-85). He combined research and administrative leadership in his time at the universities at Regina (Assoc. VP Research; Dean of Graduate Studies, 1993-97), Waterloo (Department Chair, 1997-2002), Dalhousie (Dean of Computer Science, 2002-06) and York (Dean of Science & Engineering, 2006-09).

Nick was a prolific researcher (over 400 refereed papers); an inspiring and caring mentor and supervisor (numerous post-docs and graduate students); and, recently, a passionate and determined builder of big collaborative projects. He had broad research interests in artificial intelligence (including computational linguistics); knowledge-based systems (including data analysis and data mining); human-machine interfaces; and natural language processing, text analysis and bioinformatics. Recently he had been the Principal Investigator for the Centre for Innovation Visualization and Data Driven Design (CIV-DDD), which brought together researchers from three Toronto universities and a dozen private-sector partners. He and his colleagues most recently obtained funding for the Big Data Research, Analytics and Information Network (BRAIN) Alliance, which continues the earlier project and brings together larger university representation and private and public sector partners. Nick's creativity and passion made these projects possible.

Nick's work was honoured many times over the years. Most recently he particularly valued the Lifetime Achievement Award he received in 2014 from the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association.

Nick is survived by his wife Thanyalak; his sister, Betty Nester, and her husband, Don; their daughters, Katharine Nester and Elizabeth Horton, and Elizabeth's daughter, Alice Horton; and his countless friends across the continent and beyond.

“Many thanks to the many doctors, nurses and staff at Toronto General who tended to Nick this last year!”

A national scholarship to honour Nick is being organized, and will be announced soon. A Celebration of Nick's life and work will be held in Toronto in January; details will follow. Condolences may be sent to Thanyalak Cercone by visiting www.jerrettvaughanchapel.ca.