Susannah Scott
2025-26 Academic Senate Vice Chair
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Susannah Scott has been a member of the UC Santa Barbara faculty since 2002. Scott holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry & Biochemistry and is the Duncan & Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability. She was named a UC Santa Barbara Distinguished Professor in 2015.
Professor Scott is a leading researcher in sustainable chemistry. Her work focuses on designing catalysts—materials that make chemical reactions happen faster and more selectively—to improve the sustainability of manufacturing. Her work aims to reduce waste, lower energy use, and make cleaner fuels and materials. She also studies how to convert renewable and recycled materials, including plant-based materials and even plastic waste, into the building blocks of useful products, contributing to more sustainable industry practices.
A committed campus leader, Professor Scott chaired the Santa Barbara Division of the Academic Senate from 2020 to 2024, guiding shared governance during a period of exceptional challenges. She served on UCSB’s COVID-19 response teams, advocated for faculty consultation in emergency decision-making, and helped secure funding support for early-career faculty impacted by the pandemic. She also co-chaired key campus committees—including the Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy, the Childcare Taskforce, the Design Review Committee, and the Decarbonization Study Committee—and played a leading role in campus planning, housing, and accreditation efforts.
At the systemwide level, Professor Scott served on the Academic Council and the Academic Planning Council (APC), also co-chairing the APC’s Workgroup on the Future of Doctoral Education. She has been a strong advocate for graduate education, emphasizing its central role in UC’s academic mission, and has contributed to policy development through service on the Graduate Education and Employment Advisory Committee and as a reviewer for the UC Laboratory Fees Research Program.
Professor Scott helped lead the creation of UCSB’s Clean Energy Master Plan, which is projected to virtually eliminate the campus’s direct emissions (Scope 1) at the lowest cost and with the highest return on investment of any UC decarbonization initiative.
Her professional service is extensive. She is Executive Editor of ACS Catalysis, serves on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science, and has chaired major scientific organizations and conferences, including the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society and the Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis.
Professor Scott earned her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta and her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University. She completed postdoctoral research at the Ames Laboratory and the Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l’environnement in France.
