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Susan M Scott (1975) A trailblazer for women in science, Distinguished Professor Susan Scott is a multi-award-winning world leader in the fields of general relativity, gravitational singularities and black holes.
She is the first female physicist to win the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science – Australia’s top prize for science – for her role in the ground-breaking detection of gravitational waves first proposed by Albert Einstein. Susan attended MLC from Years 7 – 12 and was dux of both maths and science in her final year. She completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) at Monash University, followed by a PhD in mathematical physics at the University of Adelaide. She was then awarded a Rhodes Fellowship to the University of Oxford, where she worked closely with Nobel Laureate, Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS on various projects in the field of cosmology. “I was fortunate, during my years in Oxford, to be a member of the Senior Common Room at Somerville College. Like MLC, this all-women’s environment helped give me the self-belief that I could do anything I put my mind to, even in disciplines where there were very few women,” Susan says.
Susan returned to Australia and became the first female professor of physics at ANU in 2009. She was inducted as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2016 and was the second woman to be awarded the international Dirac Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics in 2020. Susan is a passionate advocate for girls in STEM. “MLC’s amazing science teachers and outstanding facilities and programs cemented my desire to pursue a career in science. ‘Follow your dreams’ was the message at MLC. There was never a thought that I couldn’t pursue science and maths because I was a girl.” A recent highlight for Susan was the opportunity to spend a month in Antarctica with a team of female scientists as part of the international Homeward Bound leadership program. Susan has two daughters, both of whom are at university.
