Donald Erik Sarason (January 26, 1933 – April 8, 2017) was an American mathematician whose research topics included Hardy space theory and VMO.

As a professor at the University of California, Berkeley he became the doctoral advisor of 39 graduate students.

[1] Sarason majored in physics at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1955.

After continuing for a master's degree in physics in 1957, he switched to mathematics, still at the University, completing his Ph.D. in 1963 under the supervision of Paul Halmos.

[2] Sarason became a postdoctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1963–1964, supported by a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.