Tom Lehrer (born 9 April 1928), also known as Thomas Andrew Lehrer, is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and mathematician. Lehrer is known for his comic songs which were written in the 1950s and 1960s. His career was short, as he retired in the 1970s, in order to focus on teaching mathematics at Harvard University. His most known songs are "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", and The Elements, where Lehrer sung all the elements in the periodic table (at that time), to the tune of the Modern Major General, a song that was written by Gilbert and Sullivan for the stage show The Pirates of Penzance.