Lucy Lifschitz

Professor Emeritus

Lucy Lifschitz received a B.A. (cum laude) from UCLA (1991) and an M.S. from Yale University in 1993. In 1998, she earned a doctoral degree at Yale under the direction of Grigory Margulis; her doctoral dissertation was titled Superrigidity Theorems in Positive Characteristic. She held visiting positions at the University of Bielefeld, the University of Virginia, and Tufts University. She came to OU in 2001 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005. Dr. Lifschitz worked on geometric and measured group theory, Lie groups, arithmetic groups, and other groups of geometric interest. Over the years she has taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. She has taught the challenging Capstone course three times, designing it every time on a different topic – Lie algebras and quantum mechanics, the four-color theorem, and Lie algebras. She has also taught many graduate courses (Algebra I and II, Lie theory, Cryptography, Fuchsian groups, and Ordered groups), the Algebra Literacy course, and has directed many individual graduate reading courses. She co-advised (together with Justin Malestein) the doctoral student Thomas Morgan and has supervised three senior theses. She has served on many departmental committees, including Committee A (2015-2017), and several University committees, including the Faculty Senate (2008-2011). Dr. Lifschitz retired in 2023.