Daniel Mark Lewin

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'Daniel Mark Lewin "Danny" Lewin (Template:Langx; May 14, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American-Israeli mathematician and entrepreneur who co-founded Akamai Technologies. He was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 attacks. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Lewin was stabbed by Satam al-Suqami behind him, after attempting to confront two other Islamist hijackers seated in front of him. His death made him the first victim of the September 11 attacks.[1][2][3]

Early life

Lewin was born on May 14, 1970, in Denver, Colorado, to a Jewish family. He was one of three brothers. He moved to Israel with his family at age 14 and spent the remainder of his childhood living in Jerusalem. He completed his secondary education at an ORT high school.[4][5][6]

At age 14, Lewin made aliyah to Israel. After completing high school, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, eventually becoming an officer and rising to the rank of captain.[4][7][2]

Career

After being discharged from the army, Lewin studied electronic engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa while working at IBM's Israel Haifa Research Lab there. He became a full-time research fellow and project leader and developed the Genesys system, a processor-verification tool used by IBM and other technology companies.[8][9]

Lewin received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, from the Technion and was named the university's outstanding student in Computer Engineering in 1995.[8] In 1996, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to begin doctoral studies at MIT. There, working with his advisor F. Thomson Leighton, he developed mathematical techniques involving consistent hashing, an algorithmic approach that helped distribute Internet requests efficiently and reduce server congestion.[10]

In 1998, Lewin, Leighton and other partners founded Akamai Technologies, with Lewin serving as the company's chief technology officer and a board member.[9] The company's technology became an important part of the infrastructure used to distribute Internet content and manage heavy traffic.

Death and legacy

September 11 attacks

On September 11, 2001, aged 31, Lewin was traveling aboard American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston Logan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport for a business meeting.[3]

Lewin was seated in business class near hijackers Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz al-Omari, and Satam al-Suqami. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Lewin attempted to confront the hijackers seated in front of him, possibly Atta or al-Omari. Lewin, who had military experience with Sayeret Matkal, tried to stop the hijacking without realizing that al-Suqami was seated directly behind him.[3]

Lewin was stabbed by al-Suqami, who was seated behind him. Flight attendants communicating with airline officials from the aircraft reported that Lewin's throat had been slashed. The circumstances have also been described in contemporaneous aviation and FBI records.[1][3]

Because Lewin was killed before Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower, he is generally identified as the first victim of the September 11 attacks.[2][3]

His best friend, Marco Greenberg, later remembered Lewin as possessing an unusual combination of intelligence, physical strength, courage and character. Greenberg described him as someone capable of simultaneously being a devoted father, an outstanding student and a highly accomplished military reservist.[11][3]

Akamai and the Internet

Lewin's technological legacy became particularly significant in the aftermath of the attacks. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center, millions of people attempted to access news organizations, government agencies and other websites to obtain information and determine the safety of family members and friends. The resulting surge in Internet traffic placed enormous strain on websites and networks.

Akamai's distributed Internet infrastructure helped many heavily trafficked websites remain accessible during this period. Lewin's work on consistent hashing had contributed to the underlying technology that enabled Akamai to distribute Web content across a large network of servers.[2][9]

Akamai later became a major provider of content delivery and cloud security services. Lewin was named on 25 United States patents.[3]

Akamai maintains a memorial to Lewin describing him as exceptionally brilliant, driven and competitive. The company has continued to commemorate his contributions to its technology and founding.[9]

Personal life

Lewin was survived by his wife, Anne, and their two sons, Eitan and Itamar, who were five and eight years old, respectively, at the time of the attacks.[4][9][12]

His remains were identified from the World Trade Center site in 2004.[13]

Memorials and honors

Lewin's name is inscribed at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the North Pool, Panel N-75, among the victims of Flight 11.

After his death, the intersection of Main and Vassar streets in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was renamed Danny Lewin Square in his honor.[14]

The award for the best student-written paper at the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing was renamed the Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award in his honor.[10]

Lewin's life and work were also memorialized by colleagues and friends, including on anniversaries of the September 11 attacks.[15]

In popular culture

Canadian actor Brad Hampton portrayed Lewin in the BBC docudrama Zero Hour, Season 1, Episode 2, "The Last Hour of Flight 11" (2004).[16]

Lewin is the subject of the 2013 biography No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin.[17]

Awards

1995 – The Technion named him the year's Outstanding Student in Computer Engineering.[8]

1998 – Morris Joseph Levin Award for Best Masterworks Thesis Presentation at MIT.[2]

The ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing's best student paper award was subsequently named the Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award in his honor.[10]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1. WE HAVE SOME PLANES. 9/11 Commission Report. National Archives and Records Administration (July 22, 2004).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Litvak, Yehudis (September 8, 2026). 9/11 Hero: The Life and Legacy of Daniel Lewin. Aish.com.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Heller, Mathilda. "Who was Israeli American Daniel Lewin, the first victim of 9/11?", The Jerusalem Post, September 11, 2026. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Weiss, Efrat. "Daniel was a very special man", Yedioth Ahronoth, Ynet!, 12 September 2001. (Hebrew) 
  5. ↑ The Life and Loss of Daniel Lewin, Web Genius and 9/11’s ‘First Victim’. The Forward.
  6. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths LEWIN, DANIEL M.", The New York Times, September 17, 2001. 
  7. ↑ "Ex-Israeli commando tried to halt unfolding hijacking", July 24, 2004. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Daniel Lewin. National Inventors Hall of Fame.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Akamai Remembers Danny Lewin. Akamai Technologies (2006).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Leighton, Tom (2002). Remarks made by Tom Leighton to commemorate the naming of the STOC Best Student Paper Award in honor of the late Daniel Lewin. University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
  11. ↑ Danny Lewin: The first 9/11 victim, who fought back. NewsNation (September 11, 2026).
  12. ↑ Jager, Ron (September 8, 2011). Danny Lewin: The First Victim Of 9/11. Five Towns Jewish Times.
  13. ↑ Uri Dan. "REMAINS OF FIRST 9/11 VICTIM ARE ID'D", New York Post, July 11, 2004. 
  14. ↑ Volume 122, Issue 47. The Tech. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  15. ↑ Sitaraman, Ramesh (September 11, 2011). 9/11: A Personal Remembrance. University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  16. ↑ "Zero Hour" The Last Hour of Flight 11 (TV Episode 2004) – Full Cast. IMDb.
  17. ↑ (2017) No Better Time. Da Capo Press. ISBN 9780306821677. 

External links

Consistent hashing for relieving hot spots on the world wide web, Akamai Technologies

Daniel was an inspiration, Ynetnews

The Akamai Network: A Platform for High-Performance Internet Applications, Erik Nygren, Ramesh K. Sitaraman, and Jennifer Sun, ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Vol. 44, No. 3, July 2010

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