When he was leaving high school, Corneil was told by his English teacher that doing a degree in mathematics and physics was a bad idea, and that the best he could hope for was to go to a technical college.
There was an initial mix-up at his job as his overseer thought that he knew how to program the UNIVAC Mark II, and so he would easily transition to doing the same for the company's newly acquired IBM 1401 machine.
At the University of Toronto, Corneil earned a master's degree and then in 1968 a doctorate in computer science under the supervision of Calvin Gotlieb.
[2] Before his retirement in 2010,[4] Corneil held many positions at the University of Toronto, including Department Chair of the Computer Science department (July 1985 to June 1990), Director of Research Initiatives of the Faculty of Arts and Science (July 1991 to March 1998), and Acting Vice President of Research and International Relations (September to December 1993).
These papers include: As a professor emeritus, Corneil still does research and is also an editor of several publications such as Ars Combinatoria and SIAM Monographs on Discrete Mathematics and Applications.