John N. Lukens Jr., M.D., graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Medical school. He took postgraduate training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Cincinnati and in hematology at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

From 1962-1964, Lukens was a Captain in the U.S. Army, serving as assistant chief of pediatrics at the Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. Subsequently, he held appointments at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, Tufts Medical School, and the Drew Postgraduate Meical School.

In 1975, Lukens was recruited to Vanderbilt University to develop a prgoram in pediatric hematology/oncology. At the time, the specialty was in its infancy, with survival rates for childhood cancer no better than twenty percent. During his twenty-five years as Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and the first incumbent of the Craig-Weaver Chair of Pediatrics, Lukens joined pediatric oncologists nationally to develop and evaluate new treatment protocols, having great prospects for success. In this effort, he served as Associate Chair of Children's Cancer Group and as chair of several national studies of the treatment of acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and of Neuroblastoma. Through this collaboration, he witnessed a steady improvement in the survival of children with cancer to eighty percent.

Lukens served as President of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Chair and subsequently medical editor of the American Board of Pediatrics sub-board of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, chair of the American Cancer Society's advisory committee on institutional research grants, and a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation.