Scott is an ARC Future Fellow at Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania who focusses his research on collapse and recovery of reef ecosystems. His research is founded on extensive natural history observations and in situ experiments spanning 26-years and >3,000 research dives. Growing up in Tasmania, he continues to document the dramatic changes occurring across this coastline and is increasing the scope of his research to span temperate and tropical systems. Scott seeks to understand the mechanisms of phase-shifts and tipping-point dynamics towards defining the existence of pre-emptive signals to help avoid collapse, and conversely, to inform where/ when restoration efforts are likely to achieve meaningful recovery.