Sir David Orme Masson KBE FRS[1] FRSE (13 January 1858 – 10 August 1937)[2] was a scientist born in England who emigrated to Australia to become Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne.

[2] He then studied under Friedrich Wöhler at Göttingen in 1879 before obtaining a position with William Ramsay at Bristol, with whom he did research work on phosphorus.

His proposers were Alexander Crum Brown, Arthur Mitchell, John Murray, and Peter Guthrie Tait.

The son, James Irvine Orme Masson, born at Melbourne in 1887, had a distinguished academic career, becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield in 1938, and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1939.

[3] In October 1886 Masson arrived with his new wife in Australia to take up the position as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne.

There was a steady growth of students and, as the staff was small, Masson was much occupied with teaching work for many years, but still found some time for research.

[2] Masson participated in the organisation of Douglas Mawson's expedition to the Antarctic in 1911–14, supporting his interest in the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was President 1911–1913.