Leo Leroy Beranek is an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor, and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman. He was born on September 15, 1914 in Solon, Iowa. He authored Acoustics, considered the classic textbook in this field, and its updated and extended version published in 2012 under the title Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers. He is also an expert in the design and evaluation of concert halls and opera houses, and authored the classic textbook Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, revised and extended in 2004 under the title Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture.

Beranek's 1962 book, Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, developed from his analysis of 55 concert halls throughout the world, also became a classic; the 2004 edition of the text expanded the study to 100 halls. Beranek has participated in the design of numerous concert halls and opera houses, and has traveled worldwide to conduct his research and to enjoy musical performances. From 1983 to 1986, Beranek was Chairman of the Board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remains a Life Trustee. He also serves on the MIT Council for the Arts, "an international volunteer group of alumni and friends established to support the arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology". In 2008 he published Riding the Waves : A Life in Sound, Science, and Industry, an autobiography about his lengthy career and research in sound and music. He turned 100 in September 2014, an occasion marked by a special celebration at Boston Symphony Hall. In 2002, he received the National Medal Of Science.