Prof. Mason Dean is a marine biologist, zoologist and anatomist studying skeletal development, structure and function in cartilaginous fishes (sharks and rays), with a particular focus on tessellated skeletons and biomineralization. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health at City University of Hong Kong, and also a Guest Scientist in the Department of Biomaterials at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, an Associated Investigator at the Max Planck Queensland Centre, and an Associate Investigator in the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s Excellence Cluster ‘Matters of Activity’ (Project Co-leader of ‘Tessellated Material Systems’). Awarded a Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigators Grant in 2013, he led an independent workgroup at the Max Planck Institute before moving to Hong Kong, and taught at Trinity College Dublin prior to joining CityU in 2021. His work on “form–function” relationships in animal skeletons integrates zoology and comparative anatomy with mechanics, engineering, materials science and 3D digital visualization.