James Leslie

About Me

Since mid 2022, I have been employed by Waymont Consulting as a Software Consultant, developing software using C++ and React. Outside of work, I develop most of my projects using Haskell with PureScript for web development.

In 2018, I graduated with a Masters in Mathematics from The University of Edinburgh (2018), with my thesis introducing toposes and their logic. From 2019-2021, I was a PhD student at The University of Western Ontario, researching the syntax and semantics of homotopy and cubical Type Theories. Academically, my interests are in the foundations of mathematics through logic, set and topos theory, and (homotopy) type theory. I am in the process of building an Agda library for homotopy type theory, mainly based off of work from The HoTT Book. Outside of mathematics, I enjoy programming in Haskell and learning about its interactions with category theory. I am a Linux and Emacs user and enjoy system crafting as a hobby. My dotfiles repository for my NixOS system can be found here. I use my own custom Emacs framework which is highly tailored to my uses. While I don’t think anyone else will gain anything by using it, it might give some ideas about how to make your own Emacs “distribution”. It can be found here. Outside of Mathematics and coding, I enjoy running, cycling, swimming, and more recently, I have also taken up bouldering as a hobby.

Talks

I have given talks throughout my time as a student. This is a list of them.

DateTitleResources
March 2021The Canonical Model Structure on Cat/GpdNotes
June 2020Homotopy Theory in Contextual Categories
June 2020Modelling Dependent Type Theories
April 2020The HoTT Book - 8.2 and 8.3Notes
December 2019A Survey of Infinity ToposesNotes
November 2019Toposes and their logic
April 2018Toposes (Masters thesis talk)Slides
April 2017Mathematics and Logic: A theory of Sets (Bachelors project talk)Slides

Conferences

This is a list of pre-pandemic conferences I attended, in person.

DateConferenceLocation
October 2019Midwest Homotopy Type Theory Seminar (dead link)Ann Arbor
July 2019Category Theory 2019Edinburgh
June 2019Higher Topos Theory and Univalent FoundationsLeeds
September 2017British Logic Colloquium 2017Brighton
July 2015Hilbert Bernays Summer School on Logic and ComputationGoettingen

Courses

Courses I have taken in my PhD program at Western.

DateCourses
Winter term 2021Homotopical Algebra Reading Seminar
Winter term 2020Algebraic Topology Field Theory (audited)
Fall term 2019Higher Category Theory Complex Analysis (audited)

Tutoring and Teaching Assistant work

I have been a teaching assistant at both Edinburgh University and Western University, for a plethora of mathematics and engineering courses.

DateCoures
Winter term 2021Math 1600B Math 2156
Fall term 2020Calculus 1500 Math 1600A
Winter term 20201120B
Fall term 2019Calculus 1000A
Semester 2 2019Calculus and its Applications Mathematics for Engineering 1B Honours Algebra Proofs and Problem Solving
Semester 1 2018Introduction to Linear Algebra Mathematics for Engineering 1A Mathematics for Natural Sciences Commutative Algebra

Other

During my time at Western, I participated in the Directed Reading Program as a mentor.

Date
2020 Semester 1I was a mentor for the directed reading program for a project on bicategories and mates.
2019 Semester 1I was a mentor for the directed reading program covering category theory.