Rate My Professor Scott Acton

Scott T. Acton serves as Chair of the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds the American Telephone and Telegraph Company Professorship in Engineering at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also maintains a courtesy appointment as Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Acton received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1988, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1990 and 1993, respectively. Joining the University of Virginia faculty in 2000, he has advanced through the ranks to his current leadership role, appointed chair in 2022.

Through his Virginia Image and Video Analysis (VIVA) laboratory, Acton directs research in signal and image processing, machine learning, and bioimage analysis, with emphases on image segmentation, motion tracking, content-based retrieval, diffusion algorithms, active contours, and AI applications in education. His scholarly output exceeds 325 publications, featuring influential papers such as "Speckle Reducing Anisotropic Diffusion" published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing in 2002, "Functional Aspects of Meningeal Lymphatics in Ageing and Alzheimer’s Disease" in Nature in 2018, and "A Multi-Modal Transformer Network for Action Detection" in Pattern Recognition in 2023. Acton has held prominent editorial and organizational roles, including Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and General Co-Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging.

Acton's impact in the field is evidenced by prestigious recognitions, including election as an IEEE Fellow in 2013, induction into the AIMBE College of Fellows in 2025, the UVA Faculty Innovation Award in 2017, All-University Teaching Award in 2009, Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer in 1996, and the National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment in 2021. He serves as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, contributing to advancements in biomedical imaging, modeling, and education.