Mason, Thomas G.

Short Biography

Mason received dual B.S. degrees in physics (with high honors) and electrical engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Maryland- College Park in 1989. Awarded an NSF graduate fellowship, he studied soft condensed matter physics at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1995. His dissertation work revealed the roles of the glass transition and the jamming transition in the onset of low-frequency elasticity in concentrated, disordered colloidal dispersions of solid spheres and liquid droplets. Mason also created a new conceptual approach and developed an optical experimental method for measuring linear viscoelastic mechanical properties of soft materials; this approach is now known as thermal-entropic “passive” microrheology.

Mason’s first postdoctoral position was at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal (CNRS) in Bordeaux, France, where he explored the complex structure-flow-composition interplay in emulsification. His second postdoctoral position was in chemical and bio-engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where he developed the first particle tracking microrheology experiments and demonstrated these on biopolymer solutions, including ds-DNA. As a staff scientist and PI at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co., starting in 1997, he led research in light and small angle neutron scattering from asphaltenes in hydrocarbon systems involving heavy oils, resulting in two US patents and an internal commercialization that improved refinery productivity.

Joining UCLA in 2003 as an assistant professor of chemistry and of physics, he advanced to full professor in both departments in 2009. Prof. Mason’s research has focused on important fundamental and applied questions in lithography, soft matter, emulsion science, biophysics, and drug formulation. Prof. Mason has 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, PNAS, PRL, and JACS, and 18 issued patents, 15 of which are based on research at UCLA. He is a fellow and life member of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Society of Rheology, a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors, and a recipient of NSF’s Career Award.