Dr. Scott Montross is a Technology Manager for the Critical Minerals and Materials program at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). This program is aimed at rebuilding U.S. leadership in extraction and processing of critical minerals from unconventional resources and secondary byproduct sources to support an economical, environmentally benign, and geopolitically sustainable U.S. domestic supply chain.

Prior to becoming a Technology Manager, Scott was a research geologist and geochemist in academia, industry, and government laboratories. In 2015 he joined NETL and began working on research projects to enhance wellbore cement integrity and search for of critical minerals available in coal, sedimentary rock, coal combustion byproducts, and coal mine waste. He has more than 20 years of experience investigating mineral, rock, and fluid interactions using advanced characterization techniques and testing of geologic materials to develop methods and technologies suited to recover targeted resources.

He has also led and participated in several exploration drilling projects across the U.S., Canada, Antarctica, and Greenland for the deployment of borehole geophysical and geochemical tools to produce high resolution geologic, hydrogeologic, and geochemical data to evaluate the subsurface.

Scott received his doctorate and master’s degrees from Montana State University’s Department of Earth Sciences and bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and geology from the Metropolitan State University of Denver.