Born on February 15, 1866, Graham Lusk was the son of Dr. William Thompson Lusk, Professor of Obstetrics at Long Island College of Medicine, and his wife, Mary Hartwell Chittenden Lusk. He was raised in New York City and attended Columbia University, graduating in 1887 from the School of Mines. Lusk married May Woodbridge Tiffany, the daughter of Charles C. Tiffany, in 1899.

His original plans to study medicine being stymied by increasing deafness, Lusk continued his scientific education at the University of Munich where he received a PhD in Chemistry in 1891. It was in Munich where Lusk discovered his vocation, studying under the great physiologist Carl Voit who became his mentor and good friend.

Lusk taught physiology at Yale University from 1891 to 1898 when he became a professor at New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Here he did his important work on the metabolism of diabetes and fever and published “The Elements of the Science of Nutrition” (1906) for many years the standard work on the subject.

He became Professor of Physiology at Cornell University Medical College in 1909 where, using a respirator calorimeter especially constructed for him, he did a series of studies (1912-1930) on animal calorimetry. In 1913 he was named Scientific Director of the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology and was instru-mental in getting the institute transferred to Bellevue Hospital.

Lusk was one of the founders of the Society for Experimental Biology and of the Harvey Society. He rendered valuable service during World War I as U.S. repre-sentative to the Interallied Scientific Food Commission.

Graham Lusk retired in 1931 and died on July 18, 1932.