Daniel J. Kleitman

Daniel J. Kleitman (born October 4, 1934) is an American mathematician and professor of applied mathematics at MIT. His research interests include combinatorics, graph theory, genomics, and operations research.

Biography Kleitman was born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, and he graduated from Morristown High School in 1950. He is the "k" in G. W. Peck, a pseudonym for a group of six mathematicians that includes Kleitman. Formerly a physics professor at Brandeis University,

Kleitman coauthored at least six papers with Erdős, giving him an Erdős number of 1.

He was a math advisor and extra for the film Good Will Hunting. Since Minnie Driver, who appeared in Good Will Hunting, also appeared in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, Kleitman has a Bacon number of 2. Adding the two numbers results in an Erdős–Bacon number of 3, which is a tie with Bruce Reznick for the lowest number anyone has.

In 1973 Kleitman was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2024 Kleitman was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Personal life On July 26, 1964 Kleitman married Sharon Ruth Alexander. They have three children.