Winner of the Israel Prize in Mathematics and Computer Science - Prof. Alex Lubotsky

The Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, announced on Monday evening the winner of the Israel Prize in the field of mathematics research and computer science research, Professor Alex Lubotsky, and congratulated him on his win

The award committee convened under the chairmanship of the chairman of the committee, Prof. Ofer Zithoni, with the members of the committee, Prof. Ilon Lindenstrauss, Prof. Yossi Ezer and Prof. Eil Koslavitz.

In the reasons for the award committee it was stated: "Prof. Alex Lubotsky is one of the most important researchers in the world in the theory of groups. His research covers all parts of this theory: finite, infinite, topological, algebraic, arithmetic and more. Lubotsky solved a considerable number of important open problems and his various works opened up new research paths that attracted many researchers. His works influenced many fields in mathematics and computer science, and in particular the field of expansive graphs and their uses."

The work of Professor Alexander Lubotsky

Alexander (Alex) Lubotsky was born in Ramat Gan in 1956, the son of Holocaust survivor parents. His father was a member of the Jewish underground in the Vilnius ghetto and a partisan and his mother was saved as a young girl and after many upheavals she qualified for Israel through Cyprus.

Lubotsky completed the writing of his doctoral thesis during his military service and was awarded a doctorate in mathematics at the age of 23. Already Alex's doctoral thesis written under the guidance of Prof. Hillel Furstenberg broke a scientific path and in it he gave a counter example to Grothendick's hypothesis. In 1982 he was discharged from the IDF with the rank of captain and joined the faculty of the Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University.

In 1985, when he was 29 years old, he was promoted to the rank of associate professor (thus becoming the youngest professor in Israel at the time). This appointment was made following two major breakthroughs in Alex's scientific work: the construction of Ramanogen graphs [18,26] and the solution of the Serre hypothesis. In 1989 he was appointed a full professor. A short time later Lubotsky (with Mozes Vergunten) solved Gromov's central conjecture. In the years 1994-1996 he served as the head of the Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University.

Lubotsky was also active in various public and academic bodies, including the "Blue Circle". Later this circle was one of the bodies that founded the "Third Way" movement and on its behalf was elected as the 14th member of the Knesset. In the Knesset he was a member of the foreign and security committees, the law and justice constitution, the status of women and the science committee. His main preoccupation in the Knesset was on matters of religion and state. Together with MK Beilin he drafted a charter for coexistence between religious and secular people. During the "Who is a Jew / Conversion Law" crisis between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry, he played a central role in mediation and conciliation. Even though he was among the most active members of the Knesset, he continued his research activities during this period, and one of his most famous and important works - the refutation of Platonov's hypothesis - was done during this period.

He authored three books and over 130 articles in mathematics and computer science, won many Israeli and international prizes and honorary degrees, including the Ardash Prize, the Rothschild Prize, and the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize for two of his books, the first and the third (together with Prof. Segal from the University of Oxford). Lubotsky is the only scientist to win this international award twice. His first book Discrete groups, Expanding Graphs and Invariant Measures Considered the classic book that shaped the field and was recently reissued in a series Modern Birkhäuser Classics. Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago for his "contributions to modern mathematics". Since 2003, Prof. Lubotsky's name has appeared in the prestigious ISI list of the most cited scientists in the world. Many times he appeared on the Hebrew University's list of outstanding teachers. In 2003, upon the retirement of Prof. Hillel Furstenberg, Lubotsky was appointed to the Weil Chair. In 2007 he received the Rector's Award for excellence as a researcher and teacher. In 2008 he won the prestigious grant for researchers ERC of the European Union.

Prof. Lubotsky is considered a highly sought after lecturer at many international conferences and has lectured in dozens of countries and major universities. In 2011, he was invited to deliver the "colloquium lectures" at the joint annual conference of the American Mathematical Association (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) - these lectures, which are the highlight of the annual conference (with over 5,000 participants) are an annual tradition that begins at the end of the 19th century -XNUMX. Only a few times have non-American speakers been invited to give these lectures, and Lubotsky is the only Israeli who has received this honor.

He combined all the years research activity together with teaching and training. He had dozens of graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students (Israelis and foreigners) many of whom are currently serving as faculty members in Israel and around the world, and some have even become leading stars in their own right.

Lubotsky served and serves as an editor in a number of important international newspapers including Duke Journal of Mathematics, Journal of the European Mathematical Society  and more. Especially noteworthy is his many years of dedication to Israel Journal of Mathematics, which is considered an important international newspaper. Lubotsky led and continues to lead it for many years (both from the scientific side and in the economic aspect which was problematic until Lubotsky entered the picture).

Alex Lubotsky and his wife Jordana have six children and twelve grandchildren. His eldest son, Asahel, was seriously injured in the Second Lebanon War (Asahel's book "From the Desert and Lebanon" describes the injury and the rehabilitation process, along with his courageous ties with his father).