School of the Coastal Environment Web Portal

Presenter: Dr. Geoffrey I. Scott

Biosketch:

Dr. Geoffrey I. Scott, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina

Dr. Geoffrey I. Scott received his BS in Biology from Wofford College and his MS and PhD. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina. Research experience included (1)  Aquatic Toxicologist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bears Bluff Field Station from 1976-80, studying the impacts of water chlorination on estuarine organisms and conducting ecological assessments of oil spill impacts around the world, including assessing impacts of the Ixtoc Well Blowout in the Gulf of Mexico; (2) Director of Toxicology Program and the Wide Awake Landing Marine Field Station for Research Planning Institute from 1980-84, conducting research on hazardous waste sites impacts, oil spills and Vibrio cholerae outbreaks in the Gulf of Mexico; (3) Assistant and Associate Tenured Professor at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health from 1984-90 working on assessing the impacts of agricultural pesticides, synthetic fuels and urban NPS runoff on coastal ecosystems; and (4) NOAA/NOS National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR), 1990-2014, conducting research that measure the health of coastal ecosystems and evaluates the impacts of changing landscape ecology from urbanization on ecosystem and human health. Dr. Scott was the Director of NOAA’s CCEHBR from 2001-2014, and formerly the Acting Director for NOAA’s Center for Human Health Risk at the Hollings Marine Laboratory from 2009-2011.  Dr. Scott is currently a Clinical Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. He also holds faculty appointments at other academic Institutions including the Marine Biomedicine Program at the Medical University of South Carolina, the Marine Biology Program at the College of Charleston and Texas Tech University’s Institute for Environmental and Human Health.

Dr. Scott has served on >100 graduate student research committees and has directed the research of > 50 Masters and PhD Students at various institutions where he holds faculty appointments. He has published > 120 peer reviewed scientific publications and has authored/co-authored > 23 national reports. Dr. Scott has served on numerous national and international advisory panels to government and industry including EPA –FIFRA, Food Quality and Protection Act, Endocrine Disruptors , Climate Change and Genetically Modified Crops;  the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, which regulates the harvesting , processing and shipment of molluscan shellfish in the U.S.; SC Governor’s Primary Health Care Task Force; the United Nations Gulf of Guinea Large Marine Ecosystem Team Member; Oxford University Roundtable Fellow on Global Climate Change and Sustainability; and State of California Expert Panel on Contaminants of Emerging Concern. Dr. Scott has won numerous awards including the Outstanding Young Investigators Award at the University of South Carolina, NOAA Unit Citation for the Ixtoc Oil Spill Research, the NOAA Administrators Award for leadership in directing outstanding research at his NOAA Research Center, and NOAA Peer Rafting Award for leading research on Vibrio bacterial hazards posed to workers during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.