Profile
Katherine Walsh is a doctoral candidate in the Mathematics Department at the University of California, San Diego. She studies topology, an area of math that looks at different shaped spaces that can be deformed by stretching and shrinking but not by cutting. One of the main aspects in the study of topology is using mathematical tools to determine which spaces are distinct. Her thesis work looks at patterns and the stability of the coefficients of the Colored Jones Polynomial. This polynomial can be used to distinguish different knots, even if the knots have a highly complicated structure. It is a topic in the area of knot theory - the mathematical study of knots in strings. On the side, she has also worked on a project looking at different wound measuring and surgical techniques from a mathematical perspective with another member of the Mathematics Department and researchers from the UCSD Plastic Reconstructive Surgery Department. She is an active member of the UCSD chapter of AWM (Association for Women in Math) and organizes and participates in many service activities with this group.
