about me

Philip W Mason

I grew up on a small family farm in rural Gorham, Maine in the 1970’s and 80’s. Farm life instilled in me a strong sense of values, including resilience, responsibility, and the necessity of team-work. When I graduated high school, I attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, starting off in mechanical engineering before switching to physics, and graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1991. From there, I went to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, earning my masters and finally a PhD in physics in 1998 with my dissertation “An Optical and Magnetic Resonance Study of Point Defects in Silicon, Diamond, and Aluminum Nitride”. I have, over the course of my career, put those degrees to good use at various high-tech companies including a five year stint at the Bell Labs Division of Lucent Technologies.