Robert Lucas

Robert Lucas is GSK Professor of Neuroscience and director of the Centre for Biological Timing at the University of Manchester. His research looks at how the eye detects light, not only to produce images but also to tell the body what time of day it is, which shapes sleep, metabolism and mood. He is a leading authority on melanopsin, a light-sensitive protein found in a third type of photoreceptor in the retina, alongside the rods and cones.

His group also studies light-sensitive proteins called opsins and how they could be used in optogenetic approaches to restoring sight in people with retinal degeneration. He has received European Research Council Advanced and Synergy Grants, was elected to Academia Europaea in 2012, and the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021.