Alan Lucas read biology and medicine as an undergradate at Clare. His subsequent career included a Wellcome Research Fellowship at Oxford and a lectureship at Cambridge University’s Medical School, as well as becoming Head of Infant and Child Nutrition at the Dunn Nutrition Unit of the Medical Research Council (MRC). In 1996 he founded the MRC Research Centre at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street for Children. His research has generated over 400 publications in his specialist field and he has made numerous landmark discoveries, including the impact of early nutrition on later cardiovascular risk factors, vascular health, brain development, bone health and allergies. The revolutionary idea that rapid, as opposed to slower, growth during the critical window in early post-natal life increases the risk of later cardiovascular disease and obesity followed from Alan’s work and has greatly influenced public health practice internationally.

In 2006 he was awarded the James Spence Medal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of paediatric knowledge.