F. Thomson Leighton

Frank Thomson "Tom" Leighton (born 1956) is an American mathematician who is the CEO of Akamai Technologies, the company he co-founded with the late Daniel Lewin in 1998.^[2] Leighton discovered a solution to free up web congestion using applied mathematics and distributed computing.^[3] Under his leadership, Akamai has evolved from its origins as a content delivery network (CDN) into the world's most distributed cloud platform, with leading solutions for content delivery, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.

Frank Thomson Leighton
Born	(1956-10-28) October 28, 1956 (age 68)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Princeton University (BSE) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Spouse	Bonnie Berger
Awards	IEEE John von Neumann Medal (2023) Marconi Prize (2018)
Scientific career
Fields	Applied mathematics
Institutions	Akamai Technologies Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis	Layouts for the shuffle-exchange graph and lower bound techniques for VLSI (1981)
Doctoral advisor	Gary Miller
Doctoral students	Peter Shor, Mohammad Hajiaghayi, Robert Kleinberg, Satish Rao[1]

He is on leave as a professor of applied mathematics 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. in mathematics from MIT in 1981.^[4] His brother, David T. Leighton, is a full professor at the University of Notre Dame specializing in transport phenomena.^[5] Their father was a U.S. Navy colleague and friend of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of naval nuclear propulsion and a founder of the Research Science Institute (RSI).

Leighton is a preeminent authority on algorithms for network applications, and has published over 100 papers on algorithms, cryptography, parallel architectures, distributed computing, combinatorial optimization, and graph theory. He also holds numerous patents involving content delivery, Internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography, and digital rights management. His text on Parallel Algortihms and Architectures was translated into French and German, and the Chinese-language version of his textbook with Lehman and Meyer, Mathematics for Computer Science, has sold well over 100,000 copies. His lectures on math for computer science have been viewed more than five million times on YouTube.^[6]

Leighton has been on numerous government, industry, and academic advisory panels, including the Presidential Informational Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) and chaired its subcommittee on cybersecurity.^[7] He is on the board of trustees of the Society for Science & the Public (SSP) and of the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), and he has participated in the Distinguished Lecture Series at CEE's flagship program for high school students, the Research Science Institute (RSI).

Awards and honors

• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded Leighton the John von Neumann Medal in 2023 for “fundamental contributions to algorithm design and their application to content delivery networks.”^[8]
• In 2018, Leighton won the Marconi Prize from the Marconi Society for "his fundamental contributions to the technology and establishment of content delivery networks".^[9]
• He was elected as an ACM Fellow in 2018 for "his leadership in the establishment of content delivery networks, and his contributions to algorithm design".^[10]
• In 2017, Leighton and Lewin were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, for Content Delivery Network methods.^[11]
• He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• In 2012, Leighton became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.^[12]
• In 2009, Leighton became a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.^[13]
• 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.

Personal life

He is married to the MIT professor Bonnie Berger,^[14][15] and they have two children.^{[citation needed]}

Books

• Mathematics for Computer Science (with Eric Lehman and Albert R. Meyer, 2010)
• Introduction to Parallel Algorithms and Architectures: Arrays, Trees, Hypercubes (Morgan Kaufmann, 1991), ISBN 1-55860-117-1.
• Complexity Issues in VLSI: Optimal layouts for the shuffle-exchange graph and other networks, (MIT Press, 1983), ISBN 0-262-12104-2.

References

1. "F. Thomson (Frank) Leighton". Mathematics Genealogy Project. Department of Mathematics, North Dakota State University. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
2. Erik Nygren, Ramesh Sitaraman, and Jennifer Sun. "The Akamai Network: A Platform for High-Performance Internet Applications, ACM SIGOPS" (PDF). Operating Systems Review. 44. July 2010.
3. "National Inventors Hall of Fame". www.invent.org. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
4. Leighton, Frank Thomson (1981). Layouts for the shuffle-exchange graph and lower bound techniques for VLSI (Ph.D.). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. OCLC 4433998366 – via ProQuest.
5. "David Leighton — College of Engineering". Engineering.nd.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
6. MIT Mathematics Department
7. "Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO | Executive Team". Akamai.com. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
8. "CSAIL pioneer Tom Leighton awarded IEEE John von Neumann Medal" MIT CSAIL News, December 2, 2022
9. "Professor Tom Leighton wins 2018 Marconi Prize" MIT News, March 23, 2018.
10. 2018 ACM Fellows Honored for Pivotal Achievements that Underpin the Digital Age, Association for Computing Machinery, December 5, 2018
11. "Professor Tom Leighton and Danny Lewin SM ’98 named to National Inventors Hall of Fame," MIT News, February 2, 2017.
12. "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". Ams.org. 2015-04-13. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
13. "Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)". siam.org.
14. Eisenberg, David (July 28, 2022). "Bonnie Berger '83 Establishes Junior Professorship in Mathematics with $2.5 Million Gift". Brandeis.
15. "A renewed home for the MIT Mathematics Department". MIT Science. June 10, 2016.

External links

• MIT Mathematics Department bio
• Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) bio
• Akamai bio