Scott Lowe was born in Racine, Wisconsin. Although he was good at science and took most of the courses in high school, he never was very interested in science. He actually thought he would become a lawyer.

In 1982, Lowe started at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in chemical engineering. He thought that chemical engineering had something to do with chemicals and engineering (math). He quickly found out that it wasn't the field for him, and decided to take some general courses to figure out what he did want to do. Lowe really became interested in biology and molecular genetics through his undergraduate biochemistry and genetics courses. As an undergraduate project, he went to work in a research lab, and after graduation stayed in the lab for two more years as a technician.

In 1988, Lowe went to the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to start his graduate work. Coincidentally, Michael Hengartner started graduate school on the same day in the same department. Little did Lowe know at the time, but his interest in oncogenes would one day overlap with Hengartner's interest in cell death genes.

After his Ph.D., Lowe stayed at MIT for post-doctorate work and began studying the effects a known tumor suppressor, p53, on cell growth. He found that in radiation-damaged cells, p53 is needed for programmed cell death. Connecting programmed cell death with tumor cell growth gave new insight as to how cancer cells proliferate.

In 1994, Lowe was offered a research position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). He is currently a professor at the Watson School of Biological Sciences at CSHL. Lowe's lab continues to work on the p53 pathway and the effects cell death genes have on the growth, proliferation and repair of tumor cells.

Lowe spends most of his free time with his family, especially his two young children. He claims to be able to sing the introduction to "Thomas the Tank Engine" backwards and forwards. He also likes to hike and camp and skiing is his favorite sport.