Leonidas Kontothanassis
MassMutual Professor of the Practice of Computing & Data Sciences + Director of Industry Engagement
Boston University warmly welcomes Leonidas Kontothanassis as the Inaugural MassMutual Professor of the Practice in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences (CDS).
Funded by a generous gift from MassMutual, this new position brings industry expertise to classroom teaching and laboratory research focused on societally relevant real-world problems. Professors of the Practice are officers of instruction who are distinguished practitioners who through teaching share their knowledge and experience in the profession. Leonidas’s decision to pivot back from industry to academia is in large part motivated by his belief in the importance of having undergraduate students in CDS hone in on “hard skills” that make them ready for impactful careers.
Most recently, Leonidas served as Senior Engineering Director at Facebook, preceded by his work at Google and Akamai. Notably, Leonidas was recognized by ACM SIGCOMM as having a significant impact on the world of computer networking, as well as being awarded a technical Emmy for building a system that made video consumption on YouTube possible on a large scale.
Leonidas received his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from the University of Patras in Greece in 1990, as well as a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Rochester in 1996. Through his academic and research experience, Leonidas has some words of wisdom to keep in mind this school year and beyond: “Learning is something you should never stop doing,” he says.