Qualifications: 1971 BSc (Hons Geology) and 1974 PhD (Sedimentology & Palaeontology) at the Queen’s University of Belfast. From July 1974 to August 1996 Tom Mason worked in South Africa as an academic geologist and consultant: he was promoted from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, and from Associate Professor to ad hominem Research Professor and Director of the Marine Geoscience Unit at the Department of Geology & Applied Geology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Based at the Durban campus of UKZN Tom’s research and consulting interests encompassed a diverse range of topics including dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles, trace fossils, coal deposits, diamond deposits on the African southwest coast, Namibian desert palaeoenvironments, and coastal zone geology and geomorphology. He is the author of over 100 scientific papers. In 1996 he returned to Northern Ireland to take up the post of Director of Armagh Planetarium. Since then he has driven a programme of rebuilding, refurbishment and re-investment, and Armagh is once more intimately involved in the international planetarium community. Honoured with the award of an MBE in 2006 for his services to astronomy education in Northern Ireland, he has been responsible for rebuilding and planning Armagh Planetarium’s rebirth. He has a long term interest in working with special needs children and served as the Department of Education’s representative governor of his local school. He has been active in adult education and life-long learning throughout his professional career, running special palaeontology field trips for interested amateurs in South Africa, and speaking to community education groups. He served as President of the British Association of Planetaria from 2005 to 2008 and was selected as President-Elect of the International Planetarium Society in 2006.