Cyrus pioneered the use of computational methods to study the structure and function of proteins, and the evolution of genomes, which led to the birth of structural bioinformatics and computational genomics. His collaborations with several scientists, both at the LMB and elsewhere, helped to develop a wide variety of principles and computational methods, including developing a classification system of protein structures. He was an inspiration to many, particularly in the field of bioinformatics, and much admired by friends and colleagues. Cyrus was elected to EMBO in 1998 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000. In 2015, he was awarded the highly prestigious international Dan David Prize and the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) Senior Scientist Accomplishment Award, both for his work in the field of bioinformatics. He has long been recognised as a leader in computational biology and bioinformatics and has mentored over 21 scientists (19 PhD students and 2 postdocs) during his career, several of whom have gone on to become leaders in the field of bioinformatics.