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May 2011 Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)

At the young age of 36, Dr. Thom Mason -- a ±«Óãtv graduate -- was asked to lead the construction and commissioning of the Spallation Neutron Source project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. His task involved managing a $1.4 billion initiative. At the time – the late 1990s – it was one of the world's largest and most important science projects.

By all accounts, Dr. Mason succeeded brilliantly. Perhaps not surprisingly, just a few years later -- in 2007 -- Dr. Mason was named Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He continues there today, overseeing the United States Department of Energy's largest multi-program research lab with a billion-dollar budget and about 4,000 staff members.

Dr. Mason is among the world’s leading nuclear scientists and one of our most accomplished Faculty of Science graduates . . .  to date. He has achieved a great deal since the mid-‘80s when he was an undergraduate physics student from Dartmouth, serving on the board of directors of CKDU Radio. (That radio experience was the only management training he ever received, according to Dr. Mason, and he says it helped him considerably in later years.)

After graduating from ±«Óãtv, Thom Mason worked at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. From there, he headed to McMaster University and, in 1990, earned a doctorate in experimental condensed matter physics.

By age 33, Dr. Mason had been named a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, working at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He'd served as a senior scientist at Riso National Laboratory in Denmark, and a physics professor at the University of Toronto. His next move – to Oak Ridge National Laboratory – was both his most challenging, and the one that defined him as the scientist he is today.  He joined Oak Ridge in 1998, a year after ²Ñ²¹³¦±ô±ð²¹²Ô’s named Dr. Mason one of 100 Canadians to watch – clearly, the magazine was onto something!

Given his expertise in neutron science, Dr. Mason was an ideal choice to oversee the  complex Spallation Neutron Source – SNS -- project. Under his guidance, the project was completed on time and on budget; a testament to both his research and management skills.

The SNS is the most powerful neutron source in existence. It’s crucial to scientific and industrial research and development. Neutron scattering research has implications for daily life and promises to improve goods, services and products. Medicine, food, electronics and vehicles have all been enhanced by such research. Dr. Mason says neutrons produced at the SNS will help lead us to a new age of materials, and could prove to be as profound as the transition from iron to steel.

With the SNS project complete, Dr. Mason quickly moved up the ranks at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At age 42, he was named the lab’s director. He also serves as President and CEO of UT-Battelle, LLC, which manages the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Oak Ridge is the world's foremost facility for studying neutron science, and home to the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Researchers explore everything from supernovas to more efficient and environmentally-friendly materials for the transportation industry. Much of Dr. Mason’s work focuses on applying scientific breakthroughs to energy technology and national security – areas that are critically important in today’s world.

Even with his responsibilities at Oak Ridge, Dr. Mason remains passionate about education. He is an adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Tennessee. He chairs the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation where he helped raise more than $55 million to renovate the Oak Ridge High School, and created a $4 million endowment for the Oak Ridge school system.

One might think all of this would fill his time but Dr. Mason shares his expertise even more broadly. He is a member of the East Tennessee Economic Council and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Innovation Valley, Incorporated. He’s served on many committees and is, at present, Chair of the Chinese Spallation Neutron Source Science and Technology Committee.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Dr. Mason has been honored repeatedly. In 2007, he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Six years earlier, he became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He has co-authored more than 100 publications, been published in such journals as Science and Nature, and had his work cited more than 2,000 times. He is an associate of the Quantum Materials program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In 2009, the federal government appointed Dr. Mason to an expert panel examining isotope production.

In recognition of his international leadership in neutron science, his scientific contributions to defining our world, and his commitment to advancing knowledge, I ask you, Mr. Chancellor, in the name of the Senate, to bestow on Dr. Thomas E. Mason, the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa).