Matthew P. Scott is an American biologist who was the tenth president of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

[3] While at Stanford University, Scott studied how embryonic and later development is governed by proteins that control gene activity and cell signaling processes.

[4] [5] He co-[6] discovered homeobox genes in Drosophila melanogaster working with Amy J. Weiner at Indiana University.

[11] Scott served on the faculty of the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado starting in 1983.

From 2002-2007 he served as Chair of Bio-X, Stanford's interdisciplinary biosciences program.