Basil John Mason

Sir Basil John Mason ( born August 18, 1923) is a British meteorologist.

Mason made ​​in 1948 with a degree in physics at Imperial College, where he was from 1948 Lecturer in Meteorology and from 1961 Professor ( Physics of clouds, cloud physics ). After that, he was until 1983 Director of the UK Meteorological Office. 1986 to 1996 he was chancellor and president of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology ( UMIST ).

In the 1950s he turned to fundamental studies, for example, over raindrop formation in clouds and the formation of lightning in thunderstorms, which he published in 1957 a monograph. The Mason equation for the droplet growth (or evaporation ) is named after him. As Director of the UK Meteorological Office, who refurbished it and made ​​1965 for the replacement of empirical prediction methods by more sophisticated numerical methods.

Since 2007 he is honorary member of the Institute of Physics, which he was president from 1976 to 1978 and the Charles Chree Medal in 1965 he and the Glazebrook Medal he received in 1972. He was 1976-1978 President of the Royal Meteorological Society, the Symons Gold Medal he received in 1975, and 1983/84 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Medal he was awarded in 1990 and its Vice President and Treasurer, he was from 1976 to 1986. He also received in 1972, the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society and was its Bakerian Lecturer. In 1973 he was a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and knighted in 1979. He has twelve honorary doctorates. In 1979 he was awarded the Naylor Prize.

Writings

• The physics of clouds, Oxford University Press 1957