Alexander Lubotzky

Professor Alexander Lubotzky is the Maurice and Clara Weil Chair in Mathematics and Professor of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor at Yale University. He has solved a number of central problems in group theory and its applications to combinatorics, geometry, and theoretical computer science. Lubotzky has contributed to the characterization of groups with polynomial subgroup growth; the contraction of explicit and optimal Ramanujan graphs; and the construction of cohomology for finite coverings of arithmetic manifolds. He has served as visiting professor at Stanford, Chicago, Columbia and Yale Universities. He has authored more than 80 articles and serves as editor at six international scientific journals. In addition to this, Professor Lubotzky has published numerous articles in the Israeli press dealing with the peace process and the relationship between religion and state in Israel. Professor Lubotzky was a Member of the 14th Knesset (1996-1999) as a member of the Third Way (HaDerech HaShlishit) party. He served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee; Constitution, Law and Justice Committee; Status of Women Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. As an MK, Prof. Lubotzky was mainly known for his compromise proposals on religious issues and pluralism. He was actively involved in setting up a solution to the conversion bill crisis via the Ne'eman Commission, working to avoid a conflict between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. Prof. Lubotzky also co-drafted a comprehensive proposal for a new covenant for religion-state affairs in Israel with MK Yossi Beilin.