Rate My Professor James Scott

Professor James Scott is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Otago, where he earned his PhD in 2009. After completing postdoctoral and industry-based research in New Zealand and Europe, he took up a lectureship at the University of Otago. He has since advanced through the academic ranks while establishing international collaborations with geoscientists in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, South Africa, and the United States. Currently affiliated with the Department of Geoscience at Aarhus University, Denmark, Scott maintains active supervision of postgraduate students at Otago. His research interests include meteorites, solar nebula and planetary geology; Earth's mantle composition, history, and melting; metamorphism, mineralisation and fluid flow; subduction zones and element redistribution; environmental geochemistry; and Zealandia's tectonics. He has obtained major funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and the University of Otago.

Scott's contributions have been recognized with the University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research in 2017, the Division of Sciences Early Career Teacher of the Year in 2017, and the University of Otago Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. He has served as President of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand, Editor-in-Chief of the New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics from 2022 to 2024, president of the Otago Institute for Arts and Sciences, and leader of the Geochemistry Special Interest Group of the Geosciences Society of New Zealand. Key publications include 'Deep continental roots and cratons' in Nature (2021), 'Thinning and destruction of the lithospheric mantle root beneath the North China Craton: A review' in Earth-Science Reviews (2019), 'Metasomatized ancient lithospheric mantle beneath the young Zealandia microcontinent and its role in HIMU-like intraplate magmatism' in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (2014), and 'New Zealand's second meteorite: Makarewa (find, L4, S5, W2)' in New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics (2026). He supervises PhD and MSc students on topics such as ultra-refractory mantle beneath the Southern Alps, magmatic and orogenic tungsten in New Zealand, and noble metals in the mantle. Scott engages in public outreach through media discussions on meteorites and planetary geology.