In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
1970 Outstanding Contributions Through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry
Another highlight of the 22nd American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) National Meeting was the announcement that William B. Mason had been named this year’s Fisher Award winner. The award is given annually to honor outstanding services by a clinical chemist to the profession. It consists of a plaque and honorarium. This year, in recognition of the increasing prestige of the award, its sponsor, the Fisher Scientific Co., increased the honorarium from $500 to $1000. Fisher also pledged an additional sum to the Association to cover administrative costs, including travel of the recipient to the meeting at which the award is given.
In many ways, Dr. Mason’s career well typifies the kind of service which the Fisher Award was designed to honor. A Fellow of the Association and member since 1955, Dr. Mason served as President in 1967–68. He proposed the revitalized committee structure under which the Association now operates. He also set up the mechanism which enabled establishment of the national office to implement the Association’s manifold programs. He was importantly involved in the decision to have the AACC assume publication of its own journal, and is currently chairman of the Publications Committee. He also was a founder of the National Registry in Clinical Chemistry and has served as its president since 1967. For many years he has been active at the national and state level in working for equitable clinical laboratory licensing legislation, including the Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act of 1967.
Like Dr. Caraway, Dr. Mason also is an Ohioan, having been born in Warren. He received his B.S. with high distinction from the University of Rochester, his M.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. also from Princeton in 1946. Subsequently, he returned to the University of Rochester where he was awarded and M.D. with honors in 1950.
The early part of Dr. Mason’s professional career was spent at the University of Rochester, where he became Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine and also Associate Professor of Pathology. From 1968 to 70, he was chief medical scientist at the Xerox Corp. Medical Diagnostics Operation in Pasadena, Calif. This summer, he assumed management responsibilities as assistant to the president at the Bio-Science Laboratories in Van Nuys, Calif.
At the annual banquet in Buffalo, Dr. Mason spoke on “Some Reflections and Prognostications.”
1966 AACC Lectureship Award
William Mason, PhD served as AACC president in 1966.