Stephen Finney Mason FRS FRSC (6 July 1923 – 11 December 2007) was a British chemist and historian of science.

Biography

Stephen Finney Mason was born in Leicestershire on 6 July 1923, the first child of Leonard Stephen Mason, a garage owner, and Chrissie Harriette (née Finney). He won a scholarship to Wyggeston Grammar School from 1933 to 1941; from there he gained an open scholarship to

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

. He graduated with a first-class degree in 1945 and, in 1947, was awarded a DPhil on the biological activity of antimalarials, supervised by

Dalziel Hammick Dalziel Llewellyn Hammick FRS (8 March 1887 in West Norwood, London, England – 17 October 1966) was an English research chemist. His major work was in synthetic organic chemistry. Along with Walter Illingworth he promulgated the Hammick-Illin ...

. Mason had hoped to continue research in the chemistry department, but his attempt to find a position was blocked by Robert Robinson as the result of a dispute between Robertson and Hammick. He turned, instead, to the history of science. In 1947 he was invited by F. Sherwood Taylor, the curator of the History of Science Museum, Oxford to join his staff as a departmental demonstrator (junior lecturer), on condition that he also became the secretary and treasurer of the Society for the Study of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. His role in the museum was to give lectures of general interest on the history of science, which required greatly expanding his reading and knowledge. In 1953 he published ''A History of the Sciences'', a book that has been reprinted 27 times and translated into seven languages. Throughout this time, though, Mason was concerned that he was slipping further away from the bench; and he was also aware that Oxford would not welcome him back as a research scientist. He was offered a fellowship by

Adrien Albert Adrien Albert (19 November 1907 – 29 December 1989) was a leading authority in the development of medicinal chemistry in Australia. Albert also authored many important books on chemistry, including one on selective toxicity. His father, Ja ...

, the head of the Department of Medical Chemistry at the ANU, which was temporarily based in the Wellcome Institute in London. In 1953 Mason joined the man whose work he had long admired, where he was put in charge of a new suite of spectroscopic instruments. In 1955 he had to move to UCL (his lab at the Wellcome was needed by the Institute), where he had the chance to improve his understanding of quantum chemistry and molecular spectroscopy. Work on the new labs in Canberra was finished in 1956, and Albert returned to the ANU. Mason was offered the chance of a post there but, for various reasons, it did not work out. Instead, he went to the University of Exeter as a lecturer in physical-organic chemistry. During his time there he worked on

chirality Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable fro ...

. Mason was promoted to Reader in 1963. He moved to a foundation chair of Chemistry at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

in 1964. His appointment was as Professor of Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, "a position that he felt did not accord well with his polymathematical inclinations." He moved to a chair of chemistry at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in late 1969, where he remained until retirement in 1988. He was made a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1982. On his retirement, Stephen Mason and his wife moved to Cambridge where, for the next couple of years he worked on his book ''Chemical evolution: origins of the elements, molecules and living systems'', supported by a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship.

Family

During his time at the Museum of the History of Science, Mason joined Christopher Hill's

Communist Party Historians Group The Communist Party Historians' Group (CPHG) was a subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) that formed a highly influential cluster of United Kingdom, British Marxist historiography, Marxist historians. The Historians' Group de ...

. Another member was Bridget Irene Sutton; they married on 31 December 1949. The marriage did not last, and the couple parted on friendly terms. Bridget later married Hill, while Stephen married Joan Banus in 1955. She had been working at UCL while he was at ANU. They had three sons in the next five years: Oliver Neil, Andrew Lawrence and Lionel Jeremy, all of whom have successful careers in their fields. Joan died on 20 March 2004, and was cremated in Cambridge on 31 March. Stephen died on 11 December 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Stephen Finney 1923 births 2007 deaths Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Academics of the University of Exeter Academics of the University of East Anglia Academics of King's College London Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of King's College London British chemists Communist Party Historians Group members People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys