Michael F. Land FRS | |
|---|---|
 Land in 2013 | |
| Born | 12 April 1942 England |
| Died | 14 December 2020 (aged 78) |
| Education | Birkenhead School |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neurobiology |
| Institutions | Sussex Centre for Neuroscience |
| Thesis | (1968) |
Michael Francis "Mike" Land FRS[1] (12 April 1942 – 14 December 2020)[2] was a British neurobiologist. He was a professor of neurobiology in the vision laboratory at the Sussex Centre for Neuroscience, University of Sussex, England.[citation needed]
Land's research was on different aspects of animal and human vision. His interests were in the optics of the eyes of marine animals, including scallops, shrimps and deep-water crustaceans. He also studied visual behaviour in spiders and insects, particularly during pursuit. This led to an interest in eye movement in animals and later in man.
Land's group was mainly concerned with the role of eye movement in human activities such as driving, music reading and ball games.[3] In 2000, Land and a colleague reported their finding that within 200 milliseconds after a ball leaves a cricket bowler's hand, the best batsmen will take their eyes off the ball and look ahead to the point where they have calculated it will bounce[4] (see also Land & McLeod (2000) in bibliography).
Other work was on the processing of visual information by the retinas of mosquitoes.
He died on 14 December 2020 at the age of 78.[5]
- ^ Cronin, Thomas; Nilsson, Dan-Eric; Osorio, Daniel (2023). "Michael Francis Land. 12 April 1942—14 December 2020". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 75: 279–297. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2023.0023.
- ^ LAND, Prof. Michael Francis, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014
- ^ "Professor Michael F. Land, FRS". University of Sussex. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
- ^ "Scientists discover how batsmen hit the fast ones". University of Sussex. 20 November 2000. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
- ^ "Tribute to Michael Land". Retrieved 2 January 2020.