The Distinguished SFU Professors program is a joint initiative of Simon Fraser University’s Vice-President, Academic and Provost and the Vice-President, Research and International. The program recognizes SFU research faculty members of distinction who have achieved exceptional performance and distinguished accomplishments relative to their rank and years of service.

This year, computing science professor Martin Ester is titled 2021 Distinguished SFU Professor. Ester is known for the proposal of the DBSCAN algorithm for density-based clustering in 1996. Since then, he has become more interested in applying his research to molecular biology and medicine. Ester works closely with cancer researchers on developing data mining and machine learning methods that help them with cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. In 2019, Ester was named a Royal Society of Canada Fellow for this research. In 2020, Ester received the Innovate BC award to support their research in developing machine learning methods for precision agriculture.

Read the full list of 2021 Distinguished SFU Professors here>>