Frank Thomson "Tom" Leighton (born 1956) is the CEO of

Akamai Technologies Akamai Technologies, Inc. is an American content delivery networkJ. Dilley, B. Maggs, J. Parikh, H. Prokop, R. Sitaraman, and B. Weihl. (CDN), cybersecurity, and cloud service company, providing web and Internet security services. Akamai's Inte ...

, the company he co-founded with the late

Daniel Lewin Daniel Mark Lewin ( he, דניאל "דני" מארק לוין; May 14, 1970 – September 11, 2001), sometimes spelled Levin, was an American–Israeli mathematician and entrepreneur who co-founded internet company Akamai Technologies. A pas ...

in 1998.Erik Nygren,

Ramesh Sitaraman Ramesh Sitaraman is an Indian American computer scientist known for his work on distributed algorithms, content delivery networks, streaming video delivery, and application delivery networks. He helped build the Akamai content delivery network, o ...

, and Jennifer Sun. As one of the world's preeminent authorities on algorithms for network applications and cybersecurity, Dr. Leighton discovered a solution to free up web congestion using applied mathematics and distributed computing. He is on leave as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical ...

and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received his B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1978, and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Mathematics from MIT in 1981. His brother David T. Leighton is a full professor at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in transport phenomena. Their father was a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

colleague and friend of Admiral

Hyman G. Rickover Hyman G. Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was an admiral in the U.S. Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reactors offic ...

, the father of naval nuclear propulsion and a founder of the

Research Science Institute The Research Science Institute (RSI) is an international summer research program for high school students. RSI is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and hosted by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. RSI brings together the top S ...

(RSI). Dr. Leighton has served on numerous government, industry, and academic advisory panels, including the Presidential Informational Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) and chaired its subcommittee on

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

. He serves on the board of trustees of the

Society for Science & the Public Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including ...

(SSP) and of the

Center for Excellence in Education The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) is an American private nonprofit organization that seeks to help academically outstanding high school and college students achieve successful careers in science and technology and fulfill leadership ...

(CEE), and he has participated in the Distinguished Lecture Series at CEE's flagship program for high school students, the

(RSI).

Awards and honors

* The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded Leighton the John von Neumann Medal in 2023 for “For fundamental contributions to algorithm design and their application to content delivery networks.” * In 2018, Leighton won the Marconi Prize from the Marconi Society for "his fundamental contributions to the technology and establishment of content delivery networks". * He was elected as an

ACM Fellow ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing ...

in 2018 for "his leadership in the establishment of content delivery networks, and his contributions to algorithm design". * In 2017, Leighton and Lewin were inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also ope ...

, for Content Delivery Network methods. * He is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

* In 2012, Leighton became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. * In 2008, Leighton was appointed as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. * In 2004, Leighton was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the design of networks and circuits and for technology for Web content delivery. * In 2001, Leighton received the IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award. * In 1981, Leighton was named the first winner of the

Machtey Award The Machtey Award is awarded at the annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) to the author(s) of the best student paper(s). A paper qualifies as a student paper if all authors are full-time students at the date of the submiss ...

Personal life

He is married to the MIT professor

Bonnie Berger Bonnie Anne Berger is an American mathematician and computer scientist, who works as the Simons professor of mathematics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research inter ...

, and they have two children.

Books

* ''Introduction to Parallel Algorithms and Architectures: Arrays, Trees, Hypercubes'' (Morgan Kaufmann, 1991), . * ''Complexity Issues in VLSI: Optimal layouts for the shuffle-exchange graph and other networks'', (MIT Press, 1983), . * ''Mathematics for Computer Science'' (with Eric Lehman and Albert R. Meyer, 2010)

References

External links

CSAIL bio

Akamai bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leighton, F. Thomson American computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists Living people Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists 1956 births Akamai Technologies people