George William Whitehead, Jr. (August 2, 1918 – April 12, 2004) was an American professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He invented the J-homomorphism, and was among the first to systematically calculate the homotopy groups of spheres.
He is also central to the study of Stable homotopy theory, in particular making concrete the connections between Spectra and Generalized homology/cohomology theories.
[1] Whitehead was born in Bloomington, Illinois, and received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1941, under the supervision of Norman Steenrod.
He advised 13 Ph.D. students, including Robert Aumann and John Coleman Moore, and has over 1,320 academic descendants.