Leslie Valiant was educated at King's College, Cambridge; Imperial College, London; and Warwick University, where he received his PhD in computer science in 1974. He is currently T. Jefferson Coolidge professor of computer science and applied mathematics in the school of engineering and applied sciences at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1982. His work has ranged over several areas of theoretical computer science, particularly complexity theory, learning and parallel computation. He also has interests in computational neuroscience, evolution and artificial intelligence, and is the author of two books, Circuits of the Mind and Probably Approximately Correct. He received the Nevanlinna Prize at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1986, the Knuth Award in 1997, the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science EATCS Award in 2008, and the 2010 Turing Award. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.