Lucas is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas Austin. Prior to that, he was a Titchmarsh Research Fellow (Mathematics) at Oxford. He did his PhD in pure mathematics at M.I.T. Lucas was the co-founder of Data for Black Lives, a Boston-based organization committed to the mission of mobilizing scientists around racial justice issues. Lucas was named an Echoing Green fellow and in 2019 he was named to Forbes 30 under 30. Lucas is a 2014 Mitchell Scholar. He completed a research-based master’s degree in Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin. Working under the supervision of Vladimir Dotsenko, Lucas completed a thesis in “natural differential geometry,” a branch of geometry dealing with geometric operations invariant under smooth changes of coordinates. During his Mitchell year, Lucas also led the content-development team for MATHletes Challenge, Ireland’s first free, national math tournament, a project spearheaded by another Mitchell alum, Kelly Kirkpatrick.

After his Mitchell year, Lucas worked for a year as a seventh-grade math teacher in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. He is the author of, Decoding Roger Williams, based on a long-standing 17th century cipher he cracked as an undergraduate.

Lucas obtained his undergraduate degree from Brown University.