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What happens when 3D printing, AI and car production come together? Enormous possibilities, as Lukas


Czinger of pioneering tech company Divergent explains to Mark Walton


n the past, the word ‘polymath’ was usually used to describe someone who was adept and knowledgeable in both science and the arts: men of the Enlighten- ment, such as Robert Hooke, who wrote about microscopes but was also an ar- chitect, or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who wrote scientific papers alongside his novels and plays. I’m not sure if Elon Musk is into musical theatre, but in 2025


polymaths are unlikely to write poetry or drama. Instead, the most impressive mod- ern-day, multi-discipline minds tend to combine digital tech with billion-dollar entre- preneurship and sophisticated manufacturing. What hasn’t changed, however, is that those worthy of the epithet are able to excel at tasks that place such different demands on the brain, and to draw from such a diverse range of knowledge bases. You probably haven’t heard of Lukas Czinger (pronounced ‘zinger’), but having spent


an hour in the company of this 31-year-old CEO (pictured opposite), I think he qualifies as a modern-day polymath. He runs an automotive manufacturing company called Divergent, based in Torrance, Los Angeles, and his typical seven-day working week might include meetings about robotics, 3D printing, metallurgy, artificial intelligence, lasers, military drones and high-performance supercar engines. Plus, all the other stuff that comes with running a company – you know, the staff, the customers, how to make a profit. It would have been easy to make certain assumptions about Lukas before meeting


him. Divergent was created by his dad, Kevin, in 2014. A former Yale student, college football star and investment banker, Kevin started the company because he was convinced the auto industry was ready for a manufacturing revolution. Lukas – a for- mer Yale student himself – joined in 2016, and this father-and-son team have worked side by side ever since. The business is now producing parts for the likes of McLaren, Bugatti and Aston Martin, which is an endorsement of the quality of its products. But the pair want to go further and, eventually, turn the whole industry on its head.


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