Ray Lucas is senior lecturer in architecture at the University of Manchester, where he served as head of department from 2014 to 2018.

Lucas has a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Aberdeen on A Theory of Notation as a Thinking Tool. From 2014 to 2018, Lucas was an associate researcher and external advisor for the ERC Advanced Grant Knowing From the Inside which worked between the disciplines of anthropology, fine art, design, architecture, and others in order to interrogate how we know our world. 　

Lucas is author of Research Methods for Architecture (Laurence King, 2016), Anthropology for Architects: Social Relations and the Built Environment　(Bloomsbury 2019), and is coeditor of Architecture, Festival & the City (Roputledge 2018). 　Lucas’ current research includes 'graphic anthropologies' on marketplaces in South Korea and urban festivals in Japan, as well as an interest in sensory design, film and architecture, anthropology and geometry, and further research into drawing.