APrf Thomas Leistner
Associate Professor
School of Mathematical Sciences
College of Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
I am Associate Professor in Pure Mathematics. I received my PhD from Humboldt-University Berlin, held postdoc positions at Berlin and Adelaide, and worked as a Assistant Professor at the University of Hamburg before joining the University of Adelaide.My research lies in differential geometry, which is an area of pure mathematics that deals with curved spaces (and space-times) and has applications in mathematical physics, in particular in general relativity and string theory.
I am the Postgraduate Coordinator in the discipline of Mathematics (for students with surnames starting with G-Z).
I organise the Differential Geometry Seminar of the IGA.
My research lies in differential geometry where I study curved spaces (and space-times), their geometric properties, their symmetries and their relation to interesting differential equations. My research so far has focussed on Lorentzian geometry, conformal geometry and holonomy groups. Some of my research has applications in mathematical physics, in particular in general relativity and string theory.
My publications on MathSciNet, on Scopus, on Google Scholar and preprints on on the arXiv.
I am happy to supervisor Masters and PhD projects in these areas. Here is a list of current and past potgraduate students with links to their theses and papers:
Current students:
- Finlay Belfrage Edwards (MRes, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Estwood)
- Benjamin Bailes (MRes, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Michael Albanese)
- Lee Ward (MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Finnur Larusson)
- Dylan Holland (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Estwood)
- Harrison Greven (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood)
- Paawan Nileshkumar Jethva (Mphil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor David Baraglia)
Past students:
- Haripriya Sridharan (PhD, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Finnur Larusson), thesis
- Steven Greenwood (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood ), thesis, paper , PhD at Masaryk University Brno
- George Savvoudis (MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Sue Barwick), thesis
- Federico Costanza (PhD, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood), paper 1 , paper 2 , paper 3 , thesis
- Manasa Manjunatha (PhD, with Vicente Cortes , University of Hamburg), thesis
- Thomas Munn (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood), thesis, publication , PhD at Lund
- Matthias Fresacher, (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisors: Nicholas Buchdahl and Peter Hochs), thesis , PhD at University of Western Sydney
- Elliot Herrington (PhD, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Finnur Larusson), thesis, publication
- Timothy Moy (MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Mike EAstwood ), thesis , publication , PhD at University of Cambridge
- Stuart Teisseire (2021, MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood ) thesis , paper 1 , paper 2 , PhD at University of Auckland
- Benjamin Moore (2020, MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Mike Eastwood ), thesis , publication , PhD at Warwick
- Haripriya Sridharan (2020, MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Finnur Larusson), thesis , PhD at Adelaide and Melbourne
- Daniel Franceschinis (MPhil, principal supervisor, co-supervisor Mike Eastwood )
- Kelli Francis-Staite (2015, MPhil, co-supervisor, principal supervisor Michael Murray), thesis , publication , PhD at Oxford University as Rhodes Scholar
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 - ongoing | Associate Professor | University of Adelaide |
| 2016 - 2019 | Senior Lecturer in Pure Mathematics | University of Adelaide |
| 2012 - 2016 | ARC Future Fellow | University of Adelaide |
| 2009 - 2012 | Lecturer in Pure Mathematics | University of Adelaide |
| 2007 - 2009 | Juniorprofessor | University of Hamburg |
| 2006 - 2007 | Research Associate | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| 2003 - 2006 | Research Associate | University of Adelaide |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| English | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| German | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Spanish; Castilian | Can read, speak and understand spoken |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Humboldt University of Berlin | Germany | Doctor rerum naturalium |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Dearricott, O., Tuschmann, W., Nikolayevsky, Y., Leistner, T., & Crowley, D. (Eds.) (2020). Differential Geometry in the Large (Vol. 463). Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus1 |
| 2020 | Dearricott, O., Tuschmann, W., Nikolayevsky, Y., Leistner, T., & Crowley, D. (Eds.) (2020). Differential Geometry in the Large (Vol. 463). Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus1 |
| 2004 | Leistner, T. (2004). Holonomy and Parallel Spinors in Lorentzian Geometry. Berlin: Logos Verlag. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Fresacher, M. (2021). Approximation of Higher Degree Spectra Results for Twisted Laplace Operators. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Leistner, T., Mehidi, L., & Zeghib, A. (2026). Locally conformally homogeneous Lorentzian spaces. DOI |
| 2025 | Galaev, A., Leistner, T., & Leitner, F. (2025). Holonomy in pseudo-Hermitian geometry. DOI |
| 2024 | Greenwood, S., & Leistner, T. (2024). Lorentzian homogeneous structures with indecomposable holonomy. |
| 2024 | Gover, A. R., Kress, J., & Leistner, T. (2024). Conformal Killing tensors and their Killing scales. |
| 2023 | Cortés, V., & Leistner, T. (2023). Compact Locally Conformally Pseudo-Kähler Manifolds with Essential Conformal Transformations. |
| 2023 | Costanza, F., Eastwood, M., Leistner, T., & McMillan, B. (2023). The range of a connection and a Calabi operator for Lorentzian locally symmetric spaces. |
| 2023 | Alekseevsky, D., Cortes, V., & Leistner, T. (2023). Geometry and holonomy of indecomposable cones. DOI |
| 2022 | Leistner, T., & Teisseire, S. (2022). Conformal transformations of Cahen-Wallach spaces. DOI |
| 2021 | Fino, A., Leistner, T., & Taghavi-Chabert, A. (2021). Almost Robinson geometries. DOI |
| 2021 | Costanza, F., Eastwood, M., Leistner, T., & McMillan, B. (2021). A Calabi operator for Riemannian locally symmetric spaces. DOI |
| 2021 | Leistner, T., & Teisseire, S. (2021). Fundamental regions for non-isometric group actions. DOI |
| 2020 | Fino, A., Leistner, T., & Taghavi-Chabert, A. (2020). Optical geometries. DOI |
| 2016 | Anderson, I. M., Leistner, T., Lischewski, A., & Nurowski, P. (2016). Conformal Walker metrics and linear Fefferman-Graham equations. DOI |
| 2007 | Leistner, T. (2007). Towards a classification of Lorentzian holonomy groups. Part II: Semisimple, non-simple weak-Berger algebras. DOI |
2026-2028: ARC Discovery Project "Higher order symmetry, prolongation, and parabolic geometry", with Michael Eastwood (Adelaide) and Rod Gover (Auckland)
2019-2021: ARC Discovery Project "Symmetry and geometric partial differential equations", with Michael Eastwood (Adelaide), Jonathan Kress (UNSW), and Rod Gover (Auckland)
2012-2016: ARC Future Fellowship
2012-2014: ARC Discovery Project "Holonomy groups in Lorentzian geometry"
2011-2012: Go8 - DAAD Australia - Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme, "Spinor field equations in Lorentzian geometry", joint with Helga Baum (HU-Berlin)
Recent teaching:
Mathematics IM
Mathematics IA
Mathematics IB
Applications of Quantitative Methods in Finance I
Multivariable and Complex Calculus II
Groups and Rings III
Topology and Analysis III
Advanced Mathematical Perspectives III
Manifolds, Lie Groups and Lie Algebras (Honours)
Differential Geometry (Honours)
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Principal Supervisor | Geodesic completeness of compact Lorentzian manifolds | Master of Research | Master | Full Time | Mr Benjamin Bailes |
| 2026 | Principal Supervisor | Homogeneous Lorentzian manifolds with special holonomy | Master of Research | Master | Full Time | Mr Finlay Patrick Belfrage Edwards |
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Conformal transformations of Lorentzian manifolds | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Dylan Nicholas Holland |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Kupka-Smale theorem in elliptic complex geometry | Master of Philosophy | Master | Part Time | Miss Lee Ward |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | K-Theory of Topological Insulators | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Joshua Celeste |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | K-Theory of Topological Insulators | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Joshua Celeste |
| 2025 | Principal Supervisor | Conformal transformations of Lorentzian manifolds | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Dylan Nicholas Holland |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Kupka-Smale theorem in elliptic complex geometry | Master of Philosophy | Master | Part Time | Miss Lee Ward |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Cohomology Rings of Topological and Smooth 4-Manifolds | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Paawan Nileshkumar Jethva |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Conformally related Einstein metrics | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Harrison Greven |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Cohomology Rings of Topological and Smooth 4-Manifolds | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Paawan Nileshkumar Jethva |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Conformally related Einstein metrics | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Harrison Greven |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 - 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Algebraic Aspects of Lorentzian Homogeneous Spaces | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Steven James Greenwood |
| 2022 - 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Quadrics & Quadrals, Combinatorics & Characterisations: a Survey of Subspaces | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr George Savvoudis |
| 2020 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | On Dirac Generating Operators and Clifford Module Bundles | Doctor of Philosophy under a Jointly-awarded Degree Agreement with | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Manasa Manjunatha |
| 2020 - 2025 | Co-Supervisor | The Oka Principle in Higher Twisted K-Theory | Doctor of Philosophy under a Jointly-awarded Degree Agreement with | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Haripriya Sridharan |
| 2020 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | Approximation of Higher Degree Spectra Results for Twisted Laplace Operators | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Matthias Eduard Fresacher |
| 2019 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Legendrean and G2 Contact Structures | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Timothy John An Hu Moy |
| 2019 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | Symmetric Spaces, Geometric Manifolds and Geodesic Completeness | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Thomas Jack Munn |
| 2019 - 2023 | Principal Supervisor | The Killing operator on locally homogeneous spaces | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Esteban Federico Costanza |
| 2019 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Highly symmetric homogeneous Kobayashi-hyperbolic manifolds | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Elliot Herrington |
| 2019 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | Conformal group actions on Cahen-Wallach spaces | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Stuart Benjamin Teisseire |
| 2018 - 2020 | Co-Supervisor | Theta Functions, Gauss Sums and Modular Forms | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Benjamin Terence Moore |
| 2017 - 2020 | Co-Supervisor | Spaces of Holomorphic Immersions of Open Riemann Surfaces into the Complex Plane | Master of Philosophy | Master | Part Time | Miss Haripriya Sridharan |
| 2013 - 2015 | Co-Supervisor | Einstein and Conformally Einstein Bi-Invariant Semi-Riemannian Metrics | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Dr Kelli Leigh Francis-Staite |
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 - ongoing | Member | Australian Mathematical Society | Australia |
| Date | Title | Engagement Type | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 - ongoing | Differential Geometry Seminar | Scientific Community Engagement | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2021 - 2021 | Event Director of the AMSI Summer School in the Mathematical Sciences | Scientific Community Engagement | Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute and University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2018 - 2018 | Conference Director of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society | Scientific Community Engagement | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| Date | Role | Editorial Board Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 - 2019 | Board Member | Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society | Korean mathematical Society | Korea, Republic of |
| 2014 - ongoing | Board Member | Advances in Geometry | De Gruyter | Germany |
| Date | Topic | Presented at | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 - 2026 | The Killing connection and the range of the Killing operator | Conformal Geometry, Einstein Metrics, and General Relativity | Simons Center for Geometry and Physics | United States |
| 2024 - 2024 | Lorentzian homogeneous structures with indecomposable holonomy | Symmetry and shape | University of Santiago de Compostela | Spain |
| 2024 - 2024 | Lorentzian homogeneous structures with indecomposable holonomy | Seminar on Differential Geometry | University of Hamburg | Germany |
| 2024 - 2024 | Lorentzian homogeneous structures with indecomposable holonomy | Differential geometry seminar | University Regensburg | Germany |
| 2024 - 2024 | The Killing connection and the range of the Killing operator | Mathematical supergravity | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, Madrid | Spain |
| 2023 - 2023 | Conformal transformations of Cahen-Wallach spaces | Research Seminar Differential Geometry | University of Hamburg | Germany |
| 2023 - 2023 | The Killing connection and the range of the Killing operator | Differential Geometry Seminar | University Regensburg | Germany |
| 2023 - 2023 | Conformal transformations of Cahen-Wallach spaces | Spectrum and Symmetry for Group Actions in Differential Geometry II | Matrix Mathematical Research Institute | Australia |
| 2023 - 2023 | The range of a connection and a Calabi operator for Lorentzian locally symmetric spaces | GRIEG meets Chopin. Warsaw meeting on geometric methods in science | Polish Academy of Science | Poland |
| 2022 - 2022 | Conformal Transformation of Cahen-Wallach spaces | Oberseminar | University of Regensburg | Germany |
| 2022 - 2022 | A Calabi operator for locally symmetric spaces | Global Analysis on Manifolds A Conference in Honour of Prof. Christian Bär | University Freiburg | Germany |
| 2022 - 2022 | Conformal Transformations of Cahen-Wallach spaces | Pseudo-Riemannian geometry and invariants in General Relativity | University of Stavanger | Norway |
| 2021 - 2021 | Cauchy problems for Lorentzian manifolds with special holonomy. Part 1 | Seminar on Advanced Topics in Geometric Analysis | University of Regensburg | Germany |
| 2021 - 2021 | Geodesic completeness of compact Lorentzian manifolds | International Meeting on Lorentzian Geometry | University of Cordoba | Spain |
| 2019 - 2019 | Semi-Riemannian cones and their holonomy | THE ABEL SYMPOSIUM 2019: Geometry, Lie Theory and Applications | Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters | Norway |
| 2019 - 2019 | The ambient obstruction tensor and conformal holonomy | Workshop on Cartan Geometry | Korea Institute for Advanced Study | Korea, Republic of |
| 2018 - 2018 | The ambient obstruction tensor and conformal holonomy | Conformal and Symplectic Geometry | University of Auckland | New Zealand |
| 2017 - 2017 | Geodesic completeness of compact Lorentzian manifolds | Seminario de Geometría | University of Granada | Spain |
| 2017 - 2017 | Lecture series on non Riemannian holonomy | Simons Semester Symmetry and Geometric Structures | Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Science | Poland |
| 2016 - 2016 | Cauchy problems for Lorentzian manifolds with special holonomy | Geometric Flows and the Geometry of Space-time | University of Hamburg | Germany |
| 2016 - 2016 | Geodesic completness of compact Lorentzian manifolds with spacial holonomy | 7th Pacific RIM Conference on Mathematics | Seoul National University | Korea, Republic of |
| 2016 - 2016 | Cauchy problems for Lorentzian manifolds with special holonomy | Workshop on Analysis, Geometry and Mathematical Relativity | Monash University | Australia |