Ronald Harrop is Professor Emeritus of Computing Science and Mathematics at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He holds a B.A. (1946), M.A. (1950), and PhD. (1953) in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He is also Honorary Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In addition, he is affiliated with SFU/TRIUMF Medical Computing Group, and he is an emeritus member of the Medical Imaging Research Group at Vancouver General Hospital.
Harrop was born in Manchester, England on May 3, 1926. He is married and has two children.
Harrop was a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle-Upon Tyne before he was appointed as the first Head of SFU's Department of Mathematics in 1965. In 1969, Harrop along with many of the original heads of departments had resigned, accepting the demands of their colleagues for a system of elected chairs that worked within a committee system.
In 1973, the university created the Department of Computing Science during a time when computing science was beginning to emerge as a new discipline. The department's first Chair, Theodor Sterling, chose not to adopt the pre-existing courses that were associated with traditional mathematics. He, along with Harrop, believed that mathematics for interdisciplinary computing science students had to be taught differently, and he persuaded Harrop to teach these new courses.
In the spirit of interdisciplinary work, Harrop continued to do research, investigation, and cooperative work in the areas of biomedical computing and medical informatics after retiring in 1991 from his regular, joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Computing Science. He held a post-retirement contract at SFU from 1991-1992.
As of 2002, Harrop's latest research focused on medical informatics, single photon emission computed tomography including medical applications of such tomography, and dosimetry in radiotherapy.
Over the years, Harrop has received many awards, citations, and honors. In Wikipedia, he is credited with introducing the Harrop formulae in 1956. The Harrop formulae is a class of statements used in intuitionistic logic. According to Wikipedia, "variations of the fundamental concept are used in different branches of constructive mathematics and logic programming."
Other honors bestowed upon Harrop include recognition as a founding member of the Institute for Health Research and Education at SFU in 2000 and recognition as a "Pioneer of Computing in Canada" by IBM Centers for Advanced Studies in October 2005.
