Alejandro Lopez-Ortiz

Obituary of Alejandro Lopez-Ortiz

Alejandro (Alex) López-Ortiz, passed away on March 12, 2017, at age 49, after a 19-month battle with cancer. Alex was a Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Alex was born in Mexico City in a family of academics. He graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with a BMath in 1989, followed by an MMath and a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. In 1996 Alex became a research scientist at OpenText Corporation. He accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick in 1998. Alejandro moved to Seattle, Washington in 2000 to become the Director of Internet Research at Internap Network Services. In 2001, Alex accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science of University of Waterloo. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and to Full Professor in 2012. Alejandro authored or coauthored more than 230 publications in computer science, supervised nine PhD students, seven MS students, and eleven postdoctoral fellows in computer science. Alex is survived by his children Mackenzie Alexander Wigmore López and Sophia Copán Wigmore López, his wife Cassandra Wigmore, his sister Citlali López-Ortiz, his niece Luciana Eurídice Toledo-López, his father Alejandro Lopez-Yáñez, his cousin Arturo Neufort-López’s family, and his cousin Manuel Ortiz-Falcón’s family. Friends are invited to share their memories of Alex with his family during visitation at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King St. S., Waterloo, on Saturday March 18, 2017 from 5-7 p.m. At 5:30 PM we will congregate at the Erb & Good chapel for in memoriam speeches open to friends and family. Following Alex’s wishes, we request that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to any cancer research organization of your choice. Donations may be arranged through the funeral home at www.erbgood.com or 519.745.8445.
Saturday
18
March

Funeral Service

5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Saturday, March 18, 2017
Erb & Good Family Funeral Home Chapel
171 King Street South
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Final Resting Place

Parkview Crematorium
335 University Avenue East
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Alejandro