Scott C. Doney

Scott Doney is a marine scientist at the University of Virginia known for his work on biogeochemical modeling. Doney is the Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professor in Environmental Change,

Education and career Doney has a B.A. in chemistry from the University of California at San Diego. As an undergraduate, he went to sea as a Sea Education Association student on the R/V Westward, and was a summer intern at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). He moved to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) where he started a postdoctoral fellowship in 1991.

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy During the Biden Administration, Doney served as the Assistant Director for Ocean Climate Science at OSTP, where he worked to outline the ocean's role in combatting climate change. As part of this role, Doney acted as co-chair of the Ocean Climate Action Plan Workgroup, helping to guide and coordinate federal action on the ocean as a climate solution.

Research Doney was involved in the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS; ocean biogeochemistry), World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE), and he served as convening lead author for the 2014 U.S. National Climate Assessment (USGCRP), which included for the first time a chapter on Oceans and Marine Resources. He helped create the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program, which coordinates a broad range of ocean research. He served on several National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including chairing a 2022 report, A Research Strategy for Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal and Sequestration. He was co-convening lead author for a report on Principles for Responsible and Effective Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Development and Governance sponsored by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.

Doney is known for his use of computational methods including modeling, satellite remote sensing, and data science in the field of oceanography. In 2011, he co-authored a graduate-level textbook, Modeling Methods for Marine Science, with his WHOI colleagues. His work centers on how ecosystems respond to natural and human-induced change through examination of coastal and ocean carbon cycles. Research topics of particular interest include climate change, ocean acidification, and marine carbon dioxide removal.

Selected publications

Awards and honors James B. Macelwane Medal, American Geophysical Union (2000) Fellow, Aldo Leopold Leadership Program (2004) Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010) A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine Science (2013) Fellow, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (2021) Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Virginia (2024) Member, National Academy of Sciences (2025)