David Scott

Associate Professor David Scott's research focuses on age-related changes in skeletal muscle (sarcopenia), bone health (osteoporosis) and adiposity (obesity), their effect on risk for falls, fracture and disability in older adults, and exercise and nutrition approaches for their prevention and management.

Dr Scott is a member of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) at Deakin. He is an exercise scientist and completed a PhD on lifestyle factors associated with skeletal muscle mass and function in older people at the University of Tasmania in 2010. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science from 2012-15, and a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University from 2015 to 2020, where he led the Sarcopenia, Obesity and Lifestyle Laboratory within the Bone and Muscle Research Group. He joined Deakin University in July 2020.

He has published over 240 journal articles and book chapters, and regularly provides presentations at national and international conferences. He was awarded a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship in 2016 and also received a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award and American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Rising Star Award in 2017. In 2019, he was a successful applicant in the inaugural round of NHMRC Investigator Grants (Emerging Leadership Level 2) for his research program titled "Optimising Exercise Interventions for Maintaining Physical Function, Bone and Muscle Health in Older Adults with Obesity and Osteoarthritis". He was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society's Kaye Ibbertson Award in 2020 and a Deakin University Vice-Chancellor's Mid-Career Researcher Award for Career Excellence in 2021.

He has supervised 10 PhD students to completion (4 as primary supervisor) and currently supervises 7 PhD students at Deakin Unviersity. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and JBMR Plus and is a regular grant reviewer for the NHMRC and international funding bodies.