Keith Lucas FRS (8 March 1879, Greenwich - 5 October 1916, Salisbury Plain) was a British scientist who worked at Trinity College, Cambridge doing pioneering work in Neuroscience.
He was the son of Francis Robert Lucas and K. Lucas. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated BA with a first-class in Natural Sciences in 1901. In 1902 he worked in New Zealand, on the bathymetrical survey of the lakes, and he became a Fellow of Trinity in 1904. In 1907 he became an additional University Demonstrator in physiology, and in 1908 a Lecturer in Natural Sciences.[1]
During the First World War, as a captain in the Hampshire Aircraft Parks Royal Flying Corps (TA), based at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough; he was engaged in experimental research work into aerial navigation and early aeroplane compasses.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1913. his candidacy citation read: "Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Lecturer on Physiology. Has made important contributions to physiological science, especially in relation to the processes of excitation. Author of the following papers, published in the Journal of Physiology: - 'Influence of Tension on the Contraction of Muscle at High Temperatures' (1904); 'The Gradation of Activity in Muscle Fibre' (1905); 'The Conducted Disturbance in Muscle' (1906); 'Analysis of Complex Excitable Tissues by their Response to Electric Currents of Short Duration' (1907); 'The Excitable Substances of Amphibian Muscle' (1907); 'The Rate of Variation of the Exciting Current as a Factor of Electrical Excitation' (1907); 'Temperature and Excitability' (in conjunction with G R Mines, 1907); 'The Temperature Coefficient of Conduction in Nerve' (1908); 'The Rate of Development of the Excitatory Process in Muscle and Nerve' (1908); 'The All or None' Contraction of Amphibian skeletal Muscle Fibre' (1909); 'The Relation between the Electric Disturbance in Muscle and the Propagation of the Excited State' (1909); 'The Refractory Period of Muscle and Nerve' (1909); 'Quantitative Researches on the Summation of Inadequate Stimuli, with Observations on the Time Factor in Electric Excitation' (1910); 'An Analysis of the Changes and Differences in the Excitatory Process of Nerves and Muscles based on the Physical Theory of Excitation' (1910); 'The Recovery of Muscle and Nerve after the Passage of a Propagated Disturbance' (1910); 'The Relation of the Refractory Period to the Propagated Disturbance in Nerve' (in conjunction with J C Bramwell, 1911); 'The Transference of the Progated Disturbance from Nerve to Muscle, and on Wedensky's Inhibition' (1911). Also author of 'A Bathymetrical Survey of the Lakes of New Zealand' (Geog Journ, 1904), and other papers. Much of the work was only made possible by the highly ingenious improvements designed by the author in the apparatus used." [2]
He died when his aircraft collided with another in mid-air over Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. He is buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery, and is commemorated on the War memorial of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire
His wife was Alys Keith Lucas. They had three sons, Professors Alan Keith-Lucas, David Keith-Lucas and Bryan Keith-Lucas