| Brian Mason | |
| Birth Name: | Brian Harold Mason |
| Birth Date: | 18 April 1917 |
| Birth Place: | Port Chalmers, New Zealand |
| Death Place: | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of Stockholm |
| Thesis Title: | Mineralogical aspects of the system FeO - Fe2O3 - MnO - Mn2O3 |
| Thesis Year: | 1943 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Victor Moritz Goldschmidt |
| Doctoral Students: | Ross Taylor[1] |
| Known For: | Meteorite classification |
Brian Harold Mason (18 April 1917 – 3 December 2009) was a New Zealand geochemist and mineralogist who was one of the pioneers in the study of meteorites.[2] He played a leading part in understanding the nature of the Solar System through his studies of meteorites and lunar rocks. He also examined and classified thousands of meteorites collected from Antarctica.[3] [4]
Mason was born in Port Chalmers, Dunedin, in 1917 and was brought up in Christchurch. He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and studied geology and chemistry at Canterbury University College, graduating MSc with first-class honours in 1939.[5] In November, he left for Norway to work towards a doctorate, arriving in January 1940, but along with a colleague who held a British passport fled to Sweden in May following Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. In 1943, he completed a PhD in geochemistry at the University of Stockholm under Victor Goldschmidt and left the country for Britain.[6]
Mason returned to Christchurch where he was appointed lecturer in geology at Canterbury University College. He taught there for two years. In 1947, he was appointed professor of mineralogy at Indiana University where he was based for rest of his life. He was a curator of mineralogy at both the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Mason died in Washington, D.C., on 3 December 2009[7] from renal failure. He was survived by his stepson, Frank W. Turner, who lived with Mason in Chevy Chase, MD.
His third wife, Margarita C. Babb, and mother of Frank Turner, died on 3 February 2009 due to complications from multiple myeloma. They were married for 15 years. Mason was married two other times, first to Anne Marie Linn and then to Virginia Powell; both marriages ended in divorce. He had a son, George, with his second wife. George died in a mountain climbing accident in 1981 at the age of 20.
