Christopher Scott

Christopher Scott holds the Maurice K. Goddard Chair of Forestry and Environmental Resource Conservation and serves as Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Pennsylvania State University. He is also Science Director of the Americas Water-Energy-Food Nexus Alliance and Associate Director and co-funded Professor of the Institute of Energy and the Environment. Prior to joining Penn State in 2021, Scott was Director Emeritus of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, Professor Emeritus of the School of Geography, Development & Environment, and University Distinguished Scholar at the University of Arizona from 2006 to 2021. His earlier career includes Principal Researcher and Director for India at the International Water Management Institute from 2001 to 2005, Senior Project Specialist at the National Weather Service from 2005 to 2006, Research Associate on the New York City Watershed Project at Cornell University from 1994 to 1997, and positions with environmental NGOs including Seva Mandir and Catholic Relief Services, as well as USAID and FEMA. He earned a Ph.D. in Hydrology in 1998 and M.S. in Hydrology in 1991 from Cornell University, and a B.S. in Water Resources and B.A. in Asian Studies in 1985 from Swarthmore College.

Scott's research specializations include natural resource conservation and policy, climate-smart forestry, watershed science and management, the water-energy-food nexus, interstate and transboundary waters, climate adaptation and resilience, and energy transitions, with emphasis on the Appalachians, Alleghenies, Andes, and Himalayas. Key publications feature the highly cited paper 'The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A systematic review of methods for nexus assessment' (Albrecht, Crootof, and Scott, 2018, Environmental Research Letters), 'Policy and institutional dimensions of the water–energy nexus' (Scott et al., 2011, Energy Policy), 'Socio-hydrology: Use-inspired water sustainability science for the Anthropocene' (Sivapalan et al., 2014, Earth's Future), and the co-edited book 'Putting Water Security to Work: Addressing Global Sustainable Development Challenges' (Staddon and Scott, 2022, Routledge). With nearly 10,000 citations on Google Scholar, his work has shaped global scholarship on water security and nexus governance. Scott has held editorial positions including Water International since 2006 and Water Security, chaired a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study on sustainability partnerships in U.S.-Mexico drylands (2019-2022), and contributed to UN Sustainable Development Goals on water, energy, and climate. Major awards include Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2023), Fulbright Scholar to Argentina (2021-2022), Fellow of the International Water Resources Association (2020), and Best Paper Award from Water International (2021).