Michael Lucas has been named associate chief information officer for research in Enterprise Information Technology Services.
Before his appointment at UGA, Lucas served as chief technology officer at Pepperdine University and as director of computing operations at Texas A&M’s Engineering College in Doha, Qatar.
“As we work together with our faculty and senior university leadership to support new programs and research in engineering, science and medicine, it is important that we conceive of, plan for, design, implement and support our network, Internet backbone, data center and other infrastructure through the lens of faculty research,” said Timothy M. Chester, vice president for information technology. “In Michael Lucas, our faculty and academic leadership shall find a technologist who is committed to serving faculty on their own unique terms and who, most importantly, knows how to be helpful to faculty and when to get out of their way.”
As associate chief information officer, Lucas will provide overall leadership for the Boyd data center, network operations and infrastructure, and EITS support for faculty research. The director of the Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center, a position for which a search is currently ongoing, also will report to Lucas.
As director of computing operations at Texas A&M’s engineering college in Qatar, Lucas was responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of IT services to support engineering education. This included the construction of a $150 million building for engineering teaching and research as well as the implementation of a regional network that connected educational institutions in Qatar with research and education networks in Europe and the U.S.
