| Tom Leighton | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Applied Mathematics |
| Institutions | MIT Akamai Technologies |
| Alma mater | Princeton University MIT |
| Doctoral advisor | Gary Miller |
| Doctoral students | Peter Shor |
Frank Thomson "Tom" Leighton is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served as the head of the Algorithms group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory since 1996, and co-founded Akamai Technologies with student Daniel Lewin in 1998. In 1974, while a senior in high school, he was named one of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search Finalists (now the Intel STS). Leighton received his B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1978, and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT in 1981. He was the first winner of the Machtey Award in 1981 and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2008, he was appointed as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He has an Erdős number of 2. His brother David T. Leighton is a full professor at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in transport phenomena[1]. He also serves on the Society for Science & the Public's board of trustees.