Adam Lucas

Adam Lucas is a senior lecturer in Science and Technology Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry. Before taking up his current position at the University of Wollongong in March 2008, Adam completed ten years of postgraduate study at the University of New South Wales, completing a Master of Science and Society in 1994, a Master of Arts (Hons. 1st Class) in 1997, and a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science (HPS) in 2003. Between 2002 and 2008, he worked as a policy analyst in the NSW Government, primarily in The Cabinet Office of former NSW Premier, Bob Carr, in the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio, but also in the Department of State and Regional Development and Housing NSW.

Adam has two major areas of research specialization: climate change and energy policy, and the history of premodern and early modern science and technology. Most recently, he has undertaken research and published with colleagues at Australian universities on the reform of university governance and finances as part of Academics for Public Universities and the new umbrella organization, Public Universities Australia.

Adam’s research is focused on drivers for, and obstacles to, a rapid transition to ecological sustainability. This is a continuation of his research from the 1990s in the sociology of science and technology, and the politics of technological development. His research in the history of premodern science and technology has gained international recognition. He is a series editor for Brill’s ‘Technology and Change in History’ and President of the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (AAHPSSS).

In March 2020, he and Professor Paul Bishop (School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow) secured research funding from the Leverhulme Trust (UK) for a 3.5 year research project titled 'Away from the water: the first energy transition, British textiles, 1770-1890', which began on 1 July 2021.

Adam has been a guest researcher in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex (2011 & 2018), the Max Planck Institute the History of Science in Berlin (2016), the Department for the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma (2008 & 2018), the Science Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh (2011), and the College of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University (2018).

Since the mid-1990s, Adam has taught at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney University, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the University of Wollongong (UOW), including HPS and STS subjects at UNSW, Sydney and UOW, and engineering practice subjects at UNSW, UTS and UOW.

Adam has supervised and is able to supervise Honours, Masters and Doctoral research in environmental sociology, the history of science and technology, and the sociology of science and technology. He is particularly interested in projects focused on interdisciplinary research in climate change and energy policy, with either an academic or activist focus.