Sir Basil John Mason CB FRS[1] (18 August 1923 – 6 January 2015) was an expert on cloud physics[3] and former Director-General of the Meteorological Office from 1965 to 1983 and Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) from 1994 to 1996.

His work concerned the physical processes involved in the formation of clouds and the release of rain, snow or hail and led to the Mason Equation, which defines the growth or evaporation of small water droplets.

From 1968 to 1970 he was President of the Royal Meteorological Society[12] of which he was an honorary member, and from whom he received the Symons Gold Medal in 1975.

[13] In 1974 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, choosing the subject "Recent Developments in Weather Forecasting".

He was Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology from 1965 to 1996, when he was succeeded by Sir Roland Smith.