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An internationally acclaimed scientist who directed a project that could have a profound impact on the U.S. economy will be the keynote speaker at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting.
Dr. Thom Mason, Laboratory Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), will speak at the August 20 luncheon meeting at the Convention Center.
Mason, 42, is ORNL’s youngest director in 30 years. An expert in both science and management, the native of Nova Scotia won the respect of his peers at ORNL and wowed the scientific world in 2001 when he successfully directed the design and construction of a $1.4 billion neutron accelerator.
Through his leadership, the project, which consisted of a collaborative effort by six of ORNL’s laboratories, was completed on time and on budget.
The accelerator, called a Spallation Neutron Source, may lead to the creation of new materials that could revolutionize the way goods are produced. The accelerator will help scientists better understand how materials behave, and that knowledge could lead to new drugs, lighter and more fuel-efficient cars and airplanes, more powerful computers and longer-lasting metals.
The discoveries promised by the project, says Mason, will have a profound impact on the American economy and will secure the country’s status as the world leader in neutron science.
In addition to Mason’s contributions to the scientific world, he is also a leader in the development of his community’s education system. As chair of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, Mason has helped raise $55 million for the renovation of Oak Ridge High School and is now working to raise another $4 million to establish an endowment for the Oak Ridge school system.
As a result of his fundraising efforts, Mason was awarded the 2005 Postma Young Professional Medal. Presented annually by the East Tennessee Economic Council, the medal is given to young professionals who demonstrate community vision, business development and successful partnerships with the community, business and the government.
Now an American citizen, Mason was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his scientific curiosity developed at an early age. Mason’s parents – his mother was a biochemist and his father held a Ph.D. in geophysics – nurtured his interest in science during his childhood. He received a degree in physics from hometown college, Dalhousie University, in 1986.
After completing his undergraduate degree, Mason earned his doctorate in physics from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
For the next decade, Mason held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ and then spent the following year as a senior scientist at Risø National Laboratory in Denmark. Returning to Canada in 1993, Mason spent the next five years at the University of Toronto as a professor.
Mason was recruited to Oak Ridge in 1998, where his two directorships over the SPS project led to his appointment as ORNL’s Laboratory Director in 2007.
Additional highlights from Mason’s career include his appointment as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1997 through 1999 and his role as Associate of the Quantum Materials Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research since 1993. Mason was also elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001 and became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2007.
Mason has co-authored more than 100 publications, presented more than 50 discussions at conferences and served on a variety of advisory panels and review committees. | 
