Colin Masson joined the Board of Directors of The Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2020. Since 2019, Dr. Masson has been participating as a patient reviewer and advisor to two tech and data-oriented Michael J. Fox Foundation RFA programs.
Dr. Masson received a BA with First Class Honors in Physics, and a PhD in Astrophysics from Cambridge University. He worked at CalTech and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). He specialized in building radio telescopes to study star formation, and was involved in several projects in California and Hawaii, including the SAO Submillimeter Array atop Mauna Kea, where he was the Technical Lead.
In 1996, Dr. Masson left SAO to work for Renaissance Technologies, Inc., a hedge fund manager on Long Island, NY, where he became co-Head of Research. He retired from Renaissance and moved back to Lexington, Massachusetts in 2009.
Dr. Masson serves on the Leadership Council of Oxfam America and the Northeast Advisory Board of Bessemer Trust and is a director of the Munroe Center for the Arts in Lexington, MA. He and his wife, Leslie, have two grown children.