Professor Scott Ritchie leads a diverse group of health practitioners and research scientists whose collective goal is to prevent vector-borne disease, especially dengue, in north Queensland.
From 1994 - 2011 Scott was employed as Director, Medical Entomology at the Tropical Regional Services (formerly Tropical Public Health Unit), the preventative health arm of Queensland Health in North Queensland Australia. There he has helped develop the world recognised Dengue Fever Management Plan for north Queensland. 
He is currently employed as a NHMRC Professorial Research Fellow at the School James Cook University College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitative Services. 
Scott's research has centered upon control of vector-borne diseases, especially dengue and he has been a principal investigator in the Eliminate Dengue program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since its inception in 2005. This innovative project utilises the bacterium Wolbachia to prevent the dengue vector Aedes aegypti from transmitting dengue viruses. Scott and his team are currently evaluating open field releases of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti mosquitoes in Cairns, where they have established several populations of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti.
Scott is also involved in new projects studying the potential impact of global warming on dengue in Australia, new pesticides for the control of Ae. aegypti and the development of novel passive mosquito traps for the detection of pathogens in mosquitoes and other disease vectors.