Sir Ronald Mason KCB

Ronald Mason was a chemist who made contributions to crystallography, organometallic chemistry and the understanding of crystal and molecular structures. He was born in Merthyr Vale, Wales, and was an undergraduate in Cardiff. He took his PhD at University College London on crystallography under the supervision of Kathleen Lonsdale FRS. After a lectureship at Imperial College, he was appointed professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Sheffield at the young age of 33. Following a move to the University of Sussex, he was made Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence in 1977. There he wrote a very influential report with Sir Antony Duff that was the basis for the UK Trident programme for nuclear deterrence, which has remained in place to the present day. He also conducted a review proposing that all government departments have a Chief Scientific Adviser, which was, in due course, implemented. He was subsequently chairman of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he was involved in several major developments. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1980.