Luke Farritor

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Luke Farritor
Farritor in 2023
EducationUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln (dropped out)
OccupationSoftware engineer
EmployerDepartment of Government Efficiency
FatherShane Farritor

Luke Farritor (born 2001/2002)[1] is an American software engineer known for having worked at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).[2][3]

Early life and education

Farritor is the son of Shane Farritor, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor from Ravenna, Nebraska.[4] At 19, he produced Soundtracks for the Present Future at the Contemporary Arts Center of Nebraska, an installation featuring 59 guitars and mandolins controlled via computer.[5]

Farritor interned at SpaceX in 2023.[6] That year, he won a $40,000 prize from the Vesuvius Challenge for using artificial intelligence to uncover ten letters from one of the Herculaneum Papyri scrolls.[6][7] In February 2024, Farritor and his team won the $700,000 grand prize for revealing more than 2,000 additional characters.[8][9]

Farritor studied computer science at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln before dropping out to become a Thiel Fellow in 2024.[10][11]

Career

In 2025, Farritor joined Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. At that time, he was one of a group of six young men between the ages of 19 and 24 at the agency. As of February 2025, Farritor held a General Services Administration (GSA) email and A-suite level clearance, with access to all GSA physical spaces and IT systems, according to Wired.[12] He also became an executive engineer in the office of the secretary of Health and Human Services.[1] On February 6, 2025, Energy Secretary Chris Wright granted Farritor access to the department's computer systems.[13]

Farritor manually vetoed payments to the HIV/AIDS relief program PEPFAR even after some payments had been approved by White House officials and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.[14]

Effective May 31, 2025, Farritor became a full-time government employee at a General Schedule (US civil service pay scale) grade of GS-15 (the top grade).[15]

See also

References

  1. Swan, Jonathan; Schleifer, Theodore; Haberman, Maggie; Conger, Kate; Mac, Ryan; Ngo, Madeleine (February 3, 2025). "Inside Musk's Aggressive Incursion Into the Federal Government". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2025.
  2. Schrage, Scott (February 5, 2024). "Farritor named co-winner of $700,000 prize for ID'ing scroll passages". Nebraska Today. University of Nebraska. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  3. Alms, Natalie (January 30, 2025). "Musk visits and asserts growing influence at GSA". Nextgov. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  4. White, Steve (February 5, 2025). "Nebraska tech prodigy reportedly joins Elon Musk's DOGE project". Nebraska Television Network. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  5. Berfield, Susan; Murphy, Margi; Leopold, Jason (July 29, 2025). "Portrait of a Young DOGE Coder Dismantling America's Institutions". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 9, 2025.
  6. Steinberg, Julia (February 16, 2024). "The 22-Year-Old Who Unlocked the Secrets of Ancient Rome". The Free Press. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  7. Multiple sources:
  8. "Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll!". scrollprize.org. Vesuvius Challenge. February 5, 2024. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  9. Montgomery, David (October 15, 2024). "How AI is revealing lost secrets of the Roman Empire". National Geographic. Retrieved February 12, 2025.
  10. Dunker, Chris (February 5, 2024). "UNL student shares grand prize for translating scroll buried at Pompeii". Lincoln Journal Star. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  11. "Thiel Foundation Announces Next Thiel Fellow Class". Business Wire (Press release). March 21, 2024. Archived from the original on November 29, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
  12. Elliott, Vittoria (February 2, 2025). "The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved February 3, 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  13. Nilsen, Ella (February 6, 2025). "Trump energy secretary allowed 23-year-old DOGE rep to access IT systems over objections from general counsel". CNN.
  14. Multiple sources:
  15. Kelly, Makena (June 4, 2025). "'Big Balls' Is Officially a Full-Time Government Employee". WIRED. Retrieved July 29, 2025.