Dates

• Existence: 1914 - 2007

Biography

Ian Lauder Mason was born on 14 February 1914 in Ashby de la Zouch, England. He gained a scholarship to study zoology at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and graduated with first-class honours. After a couple of lecturing and teaching posts, Ian completed his war service as a chemist in a Royal Ordnance factory in Scotland.

In 1942 Ian was appointed to the then Imperial (later Commonwealth) Bureau of Animal Breeding and Genetics, based within the Institute of Animal Genetics building in Edinburgh. He became assistant director, and also carried out a short a spell as acting director. Keen to carry out his own genetics research rather than simply abstract that of others, Mason was appointed in 1949 as a scientist to what became the Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Animal Genetics, co-located with the University Department of Animal Genetics. Working closely with Alan Robertson among others, Ian's early research interests focused on performance recording, progeny testing and selection procedures, primarily in beef and dual purpose cattle using data from industry and testing stations in the UK and abroad.

Mason travelled widely abroad throughout his career for his research, attending conferences, given lectures and working as a consultant. He spent long periods of time in Kenya, Uruguay and Taiwan on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, who appointed him Animal Breeding Officer in 1972 at their headquarters in Rome. This post enabled Ian to work on animal breeding projects in developing countries and to promote the conservation of indigenous breeds threatened by the growing dominance of "western" breeds. After Mason's retirement, the FAO launched a programme for the sustainable use and conservation of livestock breeds.

As an author, Ian Mason is perhaps best known for his World Dictionary of Breeds, Types and Varieties of Livestock, first published in 1951, which went through four editions under his authorship. This Dictionary classified every verifiable breed of cattle, buffalo, ass, horse, goat, sheep and pig in the world and is credited with saving many native species from extinction.

Ian Mason died in Edinburgh on 21 May 2007.

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