Susan Scott is Distinguished Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics at The Australian National University (ANU). She is an internationally recognised mathematical physicist, who has made fundamental advances in our understanding of the fabric of space-time in general relativity, and in gravitational wave science. Her discoveries probe the existence and nature of singularities and the global structure of space-time, and possible initial and final end states for cosmological models representing our Universe. She has also been a pioneer in the analysis of astrophysical signatures in gravitational wave experiments, including the searches for gravitational waves from asymmetric neutron stars and from inspiralling binary systems of black holes and neutron stars.

Professor Scott holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Monash University, majoring in Mathematics and Physics, with an Honours year in Pure Mathematics, and a PhD in Mathematical Physics from The University of Adelaide. She was awarded a Rhodes Fellowship to The University of Oxford, where she worked with Professor Sir Roger Penrose and his research group for four years. On her return to Australia, to The ANU, she held a 5-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Research Fellowship before taking up a tenured lectureship in the Department of Physics. She is a member of the international team which achieved the first direct detection of gravitational waves on Earth in 2015 and she has played a leading role in the development of the field of gravitational wave science in Australia.She is a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).

Professor Scott is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, the Australian Academy of Science, the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, and the American Physical Society. She has been awarded a number of international prizes, including the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and 2016 Gruber Prize for Cosmology, as part of the LIGO team. In 2020 she was awarded the Dirac Medal for Theoretical Physics and the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. In 2022 she was awarded the Blaise Pascal Medal in Physics by the European Academy of Sciences, the Distinguished Alumni Award of the Faculty of Science of Monash University, and the Walter Boas Medal by the Australian Institute of Physics. She was also appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Institute of Physics journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. She is passionate about science and science education.

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2022 Blaise Pascal Medallist in Physics

In recognition for her contributions to the advances of Physics. Distinguished Professor Susan Scott is an internationally recognised mathematical physicist, who has made ground-breaking discoveries in General Relativity, Cosmology and Gravitational Wave Science spanning more than three decades. She played a leading role in Australia’s participation in the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, and the development of the field of gravitational wave science in Australia following on from that discovery.