Scott was born in Liverpool, England in 1938 and was raised in Carlisle. Scott graduated from St John's College, Oxford University, in 1961. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University (1965). He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University College London, University of Toronto, University of Paris, University of Hong Kong, and from 1981 at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a distinguished professor with joint appointments in the Department of Public Policy and the Department of Geography. Scott became Professor Emeritus in 2013.[1]
Professeur associé, elected by the French Comité Consultatif des Universités, 1974 - 1975.
Croucher Fellow, University of Hong Kong, 1984
Visiting Exchange Scholar under auspices of Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, National Academy of Sciences, 1986
