Mathematics Department
Kathryn Lesh Head Shot

Kathryn Lesh

Job Title
Professor of Mathematics
Bailey Hall 200B

Areas of interest

I study algebraic topology, specifically unstable homotopy theory. I started out by studying the unstable Adams spectral sequence, in a problem related to the Sullivan Conjecture on maps from projective spaces. I returned to the unstable Adams spectral sequence in two later papers on the infinite orthogonal group SO. Most of my recent work has to do with connections between the Goodwillie calculus and the Whitehead Conjecture (proved by Kuhn and Priddy), along with the analogous connections between the orthogonal calculus and an unproved version of the Whitehead Conjecture for connective complex K-theory.

Academic credentials

B.A., Swarthmore College; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology