René Auguste Lucas (born 17.07.1898) is a French physicist and a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1964). He was born in Paris. In 1935-47 he was professor and in 1947 — 69 director of the School of Physics and Chemistry in Paris, and in 1956 —68 professor at the University of Paris.
His work was in the field of molecular physics and molecular optics. Together with P. Biquard he detected (1932) the interaction of light with the acoustic vibrations of a crystal lattice (the diffraction of light by sound) and showed that light rays in the field of a sound wave can be strongly bent.
In 1955 — 56 he was president of the French Physical Society.