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OCR for page 229
STANLEY G. MASON
1914-1987
BY HOWARD BRENNER
STANLEY GEORGE MASON, a prominent Canadian colloid
scientist and one of the founders of the science of
microrheology, died unexpectedly on April 21, 1987, in
Grand Mere, Canada, in the Province of Quebec. From
1946 until his retirement in 1979, he was director of the
Applied Chemistry Division of the Pulp and Paper Research
Institute of Canada (Paprican), housed on the McGill Uni-
versity campus in Montreal, while simultaneously holding
an appointment on the McGill Chemistry Faculty. From 1979
to 1985, he was Otto Maass Professor of Chemistry at McGill,
achieving the status of professor emeritus in 1985. This
last position was endowed with special meaning as Otto
Maass was Mason s Ph.D. thesis supervisor.
Stan (as his friends and colleagues called him) was born
in Montreal on March 20, 1914, and earned a B.Eng. in
chemical engineering from McGill University in 1936, followed
in 1939 by a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from this same
institution under the supervision of the well-known Canadian
physical chemist Otto Maass with whom he conducted research
on critical-state phenomena, especially critical opalescence.
Following a two-year academic appointment as lecturer in
physical chemistry at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut,
he spent the war years 1941-45 at the Subfield Experimental
Station in Ralston, Alberta, Canada, in the role of research
229
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
engineer and head of the Munitions Division in the De-
partment of National Defence. During 1945-46 he served
as associate research chemist with the newly created (Canadian)
Atomic Energy Division of the National Research Council
in Montreal. He returned to the McGill campus in 1946 to
begin an affiliation that continued uninterrupted for the
next forty years, ending only with his death.
Stan Mason and his students revolutionized the way in
which we think about flowing suspensions and dispersions.
These heterogeneous substances, composed of particles
dispersed in a fluid, are encountered in fields as diverse as
cellulose-fiber suspension in paper-making machines and
in the red and white blood cell suspensions coursing through
our bodies. Accumulated knowledge regarding the dynamics
of such systems constitutes the science of microrheology-
a term that Mason coined, and a subject that he- and his
collaborators pioneered.
Prior to Mason's researches in the field of microrheology,
begun in the early 1950s, we were taught that there existed
in Nature only four states of matter, namely solids, liquids,
gases, and plasmas. It would be only a mild exaggeration
to say that Mason and his students taught us of the existence
of yet a fifth state of matter—namely suspensions or dispersions,
especially those in a state of flow. Together he and his
coworkers showed us how the complex, macroscopic, engi-
neering, continuum-level properties of flowing suspensions
of colloidal ant} larger particles dispersed in a liquid could
be understood at a much simpler, microscopic, scientific,
particulate-scale level of description. Furthermore, they
clemonstrated how such knowledge could be manipulated
so as to serve the needs of both engineering and science.
This research was done within the context of attempting
to furnish answers to important technological questions,
particularly those posed initially by technical day-to-day
problems existing within the pulp and paper industry. In
his hands, this essentially pragmatically oriented research
program spawned activities that were intellectually stimulating,
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STAN LEY G. MASON
231
aesthetically pleasing, and posed a constant challenge to
experimentalists working at the instrumental frontiers of
microrheology, as well as theoreticians working at the cor-
responding physicomathematical frontiers.
His remarkable success at resolving the dichotomous tensions
often existing between proponents of pure versus applied
science is reflected in the diverse sources of the awards and
honors that came to him during his lifetime. Last, but not
least, among these was the prestigious Prix Marie-Victorin
(1986) the highest scientific distinction of the Province
of Quebec. Moreover, he was elected a foreign associate of
the National Academy of Engineering in 1980, as well as
achieving fellowship status in a variety of professional soci-
eties including the Chemical Institute of Canada (1950),
the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry
(1968), and the Franklin Institute (1980) in addition to
being named a distinguished member of the International
Society of Biorheology (1984~. The American Chemical
Society gave him its Kendall Award in Colloid Chemistry
(1967) and its Anselme Payen Award in Cellulose Chemistry
(1969~. The Society of Rheology awarded him the gingham
Medal (1969) and the Franklin Institute the Howard N.
Potts Medal (19801. Within Canada, the Chemical Institute
of Canada recognized his work with the presentation of the
CIC Medal (1973) and the Dunlop Award (19751.
The scientific legacy of any academic researcher is embodied
in his research publications those refereed and invited
papers published in scientific journals. Stan was prolific in
this sense. Over a 43-year period, beginning in 1940 with
his first publication on critical phenomena with Otto Maass,
and ending with his last publication in 1983 on the droll
subject of the surface tension of solids, he published no
less than 271 scientific and technical papers totalling 3,282
printed pages of text and coauthored with approximately
60 Ph.D. students, 20 postdoctoral fellows, and IS assorted
colleagues and visitors. Simple division reveals that this ac-
complishment averages out to 6 papers (of roughly 12 pages
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
each) published year in and year out for 43 years! And
some years were better than others, his "personal best" oc-
curred in 1977 with IS published papers, at which time
Mason was 63 years of age; the year 1981, two years after
Stan Mason's so-called "retirement," ran this earlier record
a close second with 17 publications.
In addition to their novelty, these 271 publications dis-
play a remarkable intellectual tenacity. Themes (embodied
in the form of serial publications) were zealously pursued
over long periods of time as advances in scientific instru-
mentation occurred to make possible experiments formerly
deemed impossible; new and more detailed mathematical
formulations were built upon the foundations laid down by
more approximate predecessors in the series. For example,
embedded in the overall list of 271 publications is a subse-
quence of 31 papers spanning a 30-year period. Each bears
the same generic title, "Particle Motions in Sheared Suspen-
sions," followed by an appropriate subtitle. The first of this
series, coauthored with B. J. Trevelyan and dated 1951,
bears the Roman numeral T and is subtitled simply "Rotations."
The last in this series, dated 1981 and bearing the Roman
numeral XXXT, is accompanied by the much richer subtitle
"Rotations of Rigid and Flexible Dumbbells (Experimental),"
along with a list of coauthors as lengthy as its title (namely
K. Takamura, P. M. Adler, and H. L. Goldsmith). This
single 30-year-Iong serial thrust involved no less than 33
different coauthors, whose names spanned the alphabet from
A for Adler to Z for Zia. Equally did their nationalities
span the globe.
Further and more detailed summaries of facets of Stanley
G. Mason's professional life can be found elsewhere, including
his own personal commentary "How I Became Interested
in Colloid Science" (Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.
7l, pp.~-IO, 1979), which appeared in the Festschrift volume
accompanying his McGill retirement.
Summaries ant!
commentaries by his former students include an "Appreciation"
written by Harry L. Goldsmith and David A. I. Goring in
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-
STANLEY G. MASON
233
this same Festschrift volume Pp.-7. A more recent "Ap-
preciation", penned by his intellectual heir, Theo G. M.
van de yen, appears as an introduction to the S. G. Mason
Memorial Issue of the International journal of Multiphase Flow,
scheduled for publication in mid-1990.
With his passing, Stanley Mason leaves his wife, Renata,
and two daughters, Cheryl and Andrea, as well as a whole
host of former students, colleagues, and others whose lives
he enriched. We will always remember him with great af-
fection, admiration, and respect.
OCR for page 234
Representative terms from entire chapter:
otto maass
