Scott Carlton James

Memorial services and final arrangements, handled by Dignity Memorial of Oceanside, California.

.

Scott is survived by grieving parents, Christina and Dal Williams, Ed and Tong James, brothers Monty, Michael, and Joe and sisters, Samantha, Brittany and Alyssa and love relation, Angie, as well as a host of other relatives, friends, and colleagues that deserve recognition but the list would be too long to serve the purpose of this notice.

Suffice it to say, Scott’s untimely passing has shocked and saddened so many. The grief is a shared

experience locally, nationally and internationally. He was a source of great pride. He was respectful of others. He was respected, admired and loved. He had a friendly unpretentious manner. He inspired others along the way. He was a role model. He approached life with zest, with wonder, with accomplishment and with joy. What an awesome human being.

Scott was an Associate Professor at Baylor University in the Department of Geosciences and Mechanical

Engineering. He joined the faculty in 2014 and was tenured August 2020. Scott received his Bachelor’s

Degree in Engineering Science and his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of

California San Diego. He earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of

California Irvine.

Dr. Scott James was a sought after and valued researcher and scholar in both private industry and at

several US national laboratories before he took on a position at Baylor. He thrived professionally as a result of his researches and was delightfully fulfilled as a teacher and mentor of undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates.

Many of Scott’s students and PhD recipients have gone on to continue his work in search of environmental solutions to climate change scenarios and alternate energy sources.

While at Sandia National Laboratories, Scott worked on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the only operating

transuranic nuclear waste repository in the world for high-level nuclear waste storage. His more recent work focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to solvelarge scale environmental evolutionary problems. Aside from his academic pursuits and accomplishments, Scott was passionate about physical development and fitness. He was a rare combination of athlete and scholar. He also possessed a magnetic personality and a refined unpretentious unassuming (down-to-earth) set of relationship skills. He loved life, liberty and the people with whom he interacted - and they loved him. His untimely departure is our loss. His life is a ‘cherry bowl’of accomplishment and joys. We abhor the departure. We celebrate the life.