Engineer, scientist and environmentalist, Dr. David Sanborn Scott (Ph.D., D.Sc. honoris causa) has been active in energy system analysis, design and strategies for more than three decades. He is vice-president (for the Americas) of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.

After receiving his doctorate in mechanical engineering and astronautical sciences from Northwestern University, he joined the University of Toronto where he subsequently served as chair of Mechanical Engineering and founded the university’s Institute for Hydrogen Systems. He later joined the University of Victoria to found the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems. The institute is engaged in developing fuel cells, hydrogen production and storage technologies, and in evaluating feasible ways to integrate renewable sources. Scott chaired Canada’s Task Force on Hydrogen Opportunities, which produced Hydrogen: National Mission for Canada, a report now internationally recognized for its prescience.

Scott consults for US and Canadian corporations and national laboratories. In 2006, he became the first Canadian awarded the internationally prestigious Jules Verne Award, for ‘Outstanding Contributions to Hydrogen Physics, and Hydrogen Energy Sociology and Philosophy.’

He is the author of “Smelling Land, the Hydrogen Defense Against Climate Catastrophe” published in 2007.