CIPS-NS is pleased to again offer the Dr. H. Stanley Heaps Scholarship to qualifying students in the 2018/2019 academic year. To apply, please submit the application form (best viewed in Adodbe) to cipsnsscholarship@cips.ca before May 24th, 2019.

History

Dr. Stanley Heaps, D.Eng., L.L.D. was born in Stockport, England in 1926. He obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Manchester in 1947. He then moved to Canada where he was a Lecturer in Mathematics at Dalhousie University for two years. He spent the next two years as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Toronto, where he obtained his M.A. Mathematics. In the 1949 and 1950 summers he worked at the National Research Council Laboratory in Ottawa on chemical physics with the famous Gerhard Herzberg, Nobel Laureate. H.S. Heaps' first published paper was coauthored with Dr. Herzberg.

Stanley Heaps returned to Halifax in 1951 as a full-time faculty member in the Nova Scotia Technical College (later TUNS and now DalTech). He was responsible for the establishment of the Department of Engineering Mathematics. He stayed at NSTC for fifteen years. In succession he was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Mathematics. During this period, 1952- 67, Stan was a mathematical consultant at the Naval Research Establishment (now DREA) in Dartmouth.

In 1966-67, as a result of plans to develop a co-operative computing science teaching facility and centre for most of the Nova Scotia universities, Stan was interim Director of the Computer Centre and Professor of Mathematics at Dalhousie. This facility did not materialize, and Stan left for the University of Alberta.

Stan and his wife, Doreen (Alley) Heaps, were faculty members of that University for the period 1967-72. Stan was Professor and Assistant Chairman in the Department of Computing Science. There Stan helped establish a graduate program leading to a Ph.D. in Computing Science, and he supervised nine graduate students. He was active in the Edmonton Chapter of CIPS, being President 1971-72.

In 1972 Stan was invited to Sir George Williams University in Montreal. Shortly afterwards it amalgamated with Loyola College to become Concordia University. There Professor Heaps developed the School of Computer Science in the renamed Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. By the time he left in 1979 that Department had grown to a faculty of 24 and some 60 graduate students.

Stan (with Doreen) returned to Halifax in 1979 to be Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics at TUNS as a step in the development of a school of computer science. He became the founding Director of TUNS School of Computer Science, 1982-87. This School grew rapidly and is now the Faculty of Computer Science at DalTech. In the year following his retirement as Director, Dr. H. Stanley Heaps served as Acting Vice President of Research at TUNS, 1987-88.

As he had earlier supported NSIS, on his return to Halifax Stan supported all community activities related to computing science, both technically and socially. These activities included the Canadian Information Processing Society, Bluenose Chapter (Chairman of a Scholarship Committee - the computing science scholarship now carries his name), the Macintosh Users' Group of Nova Scotia or MUGNS (Secretary), and the Chebucto Community Net. Stan developed web pages and maintained accessible lists such as a list of scientific equipment for the Institute.

During his career H.S. Heaps published 67 research papers in a variety of areas including molecular physics, acoustics, applied mathematics, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and information science. He also published two books.

A scientist from another field can obtain some sense of the importance, several years later, of a published paper by looking up the number of citations of the paper as listed in Science Citation Index. By this criterion, H.S. Heaps published the following well cited articles:

H.S. Heaps and G. Herzberg, Z. Phys. 133, 48 (1953). Intensity distribution in the rotation-vibration spectrum of the OH molecule.
H.S. Heaps,J. Acousl. Soc. Am. 34, 355 (1962). Waveform of finite amplitude derived from equations of hydrodynamics.
H.S. Heaps and R.V. Wells, Can. J. Chem. Engin. 43, 319 (1995). The effect of noise on process optimization.
H.S. Heaps and l.H. Thiel, Inform. Storage and Retrieval 6, 137 (1970). Optimum procedures for economic information and retrieval.
l.H. Thiel and H.S. Heaps, Inform. Star. Retriev. 8, 1 (1972). Program design for retrospective searches on large data bases.
E.J. Schuegraf and H.S. Heaps, Can. J. Operational Res. Inform. Processing 10, 47 (1973). Storage analysis of a compression coding for document data bases.
E.J. Schuegraf and H.S. Heaps, Inform. Star. Retriev. 11, 309 (1974). A comparison of algorithms for data base compression.

And the following book intended for undergraduate computer science students, librarians and information officers:

H.S. Heaps, Information Retrieval: Computational and Theoretical Aspects, (Academic Press, New York, 1978)

He was a Charter ISP member and an Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Information Processing Society, an Honorary Life Member of the NSIS and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and he had the distinction of receiving two honorary degrees. In 1987 SI. Francis Xavier University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa. In 1993 the Technical University of Nova Scotia conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa.

In honour of Dr. H. Stanley Heaps, CIPS Nova Scotia established the award in 1999 and has awarded it to exceptionally deserving students every year since.

To apply for the Dr. H. Stanley Heaps Memorial Scholarship 2018/2019, please submit an application form (best viewed in Adodbe) to cipsnsscholarship@cips.ca before May 24th, 2019

Application Form 2018/2019

(*best viewed in Adodbe)