Susannah L. Scott

Dr. Susannah L. Scott is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), holding joint appointments in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry & Biochemistry. She leads the interdisciplinary Mellichamp Academic Initiative in Sustainable Manufacturing and Product Design, fostering collaboration across science, engineering, and policy. Her roles include Executive Editor of ACS Catalysis, Board Member of Science, and Scientific Advisor to institutes like the Fritz Haber Institute and NREL.

She earned her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University (under Jim Espenson and Andreja Bakac), followed by postdoctoral research at the Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse (Lyon, France) and the Ames Laboratory. Before UCSB, she was a Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa.

• Research Focus: Sustainable catalysis, renewable energy, heterogeneous catalyst design, and operando-spectroscopic methods.
• Key Contributions: Development of catalysts for unconventional feedstocks, mechanistic studies of small molecule activation, and environmental catalysis for air/water quality.

Her honors include AAAS Fellowship (2008), the Ipatieff Lectureship (2017), and multiple visiting professorships in China, Europe, and the U.S. She teaches advanced catalysis, reaction engineering, and scientific writing.