Charles Eric Leiserson (born 1953) is a computer scientist and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

He joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981, where he eventually became the Edwin Sibley Webster professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department.

He helped pioneer the development of VLSI theory, including the retiming method of digital optimization with James B. Saxe and systolic arrays with H. T. Kung.

His bio lists two internationally recognized chess playing programs based on Cilk, the StarSocrates and the Cilkchess.

Leierson mentions this was elected the "Best 1990 Professional and Scholarly Book in Computer Science and Data Processing" by the Association of American Publishers.