The Lucas Center and its History

The Richard M. Lucas Center for Imaging is one of the few centers in the world with major centralized resources devoted to research in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), spectroscopy (MRS), Diagnostic and Therapeutic Ultrasound, and X-Ray/CT imaging.  The Lucas Center is home to an NIH Biomedical Technology Resource Center, and supports collaborative and original research with human subjects and intact animal models--leading to new techniques and pioneering imaging technology to benefit patients with stroke, cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders. 

The Lucas Center underwent a major expansion, doubling the size of the facility as well as increasing the number of research MR systems. The new space houses a 7.0T whole-body MR system and offices for additional faculty, staff, and students. The expansion also provides for molecular imaging, housing a cyclotron and radiochemistry facilities for radiopharmaceutical production, as well as space for a number of the people involved in the effort.  In addition to research space, the expansion enabled construction of a state-of-the-art educational center.  Plans are currently underway to add a second 3.0T MR system within the existing building.

The Lucas Center builds on a long-standing and very close working relationship between faculty and students of the Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL), members of the Magnetic Resonance Systems Research Laboratory (MRSRL) in the Department of Electrical Engineering, and faculty, postdoctoral fellows and residents from the Department of Radiology at Stanford University Medical Center and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The RSL is responsible for the scientific management of the Center, and its goals are:

• to apply MR technology to fundamental anatomic, physiologic, and pathophysiologic studies involving animals and humans;
• to advance MR technology to improve health and patient care;
• to provide educational opportunities in MR to researchers, clinicians and students; and
• to serve the academic and industrial community through access to Lucas Center facilities and resources.

Annual Report

A compendium detailing the Lucas Center's current research, staff, and facilities is published bi-annually as part of the Department of Radiology's Annual Report.

History & Namesake

The Richard M. Lucas Center for Imaging was established in July 1992 through the generous support of the Richard M. Lucas Foundation for Cancer Research, and other donors such as the Baxter Foundation, the Levinthal Foundation, and the Phil N. Allen Trust.

Richard M. Lucas (Apr 17, 1926 - Oct 6, 1981) was an entrepreneur, outdoorsman and philanthropist. The foundation, created in his memory by his family, Mary, John and Don Lucas, dedicated the Richard M. Lucas Center with the vision that the Center would become the site for unprecedented interdisciplinary research illuminating an understanding of human physiology and lighting the way to revolutionary advances in the diagnosis and treatment of human disease.