James Elliott Moore II

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James Elliot Moore II
James Elliot Moore.jpg
BornSeptember 15, 1958
Newport, Rhode Island, United States
Alma mater Northwestern University
Stanford University
AwardsKapitsa Gold Medal of Honor from the United States Section of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
Senior Fellow of the Reason Foundation
Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers
Scientific career
Fields Economic impact analysis
Transport engineering
Infrastructure systems
Public policy
Institutions University of Southern California
Northwestern University

James Elliott Moore II (born September 15, 1958) is an American academic and professor emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering known for his work in economic impact analysis [1] , transportation engineering, infrastructure systems, and public policy. [2] He has held faculty appointments at the University of Southern California (USC) in the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Sol Price School of Public Policy. [3] [4]

Contents

He is a Senior Fellow at the Reason Foundation since 2024. [5] He served as national board president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers from 2015-2016 [6] and president of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences’ Transportation Science and Logistics Society during 2009. [7]

Moore received the Kapitsa Gold Medal of Honor from the United States Section [1] of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in 2004. [8]

Early life and education

Moore was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and raised in New Bremen, Ohio along with two younger sisters. [2] [9] His youngest sister, Elizabeth Moore, is executive vice president of Breitbart News. [10]

He earned a diploma from New Bremen High School in 1976. [11] He completed a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning, both with distinction, from Northwestern University in 1981. [12] He later earned a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University (1982), a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Northwestern (1983), and a PhD in Civil Engineering with a specialization [13] in Infrastructure Planning and Management from Stanford (1986). [5]

Academic career

Before joining the University of Southern California, he was a faculty member at Northwestern University's Technological Institute, now the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. [14]

Moore joined USC in 1988 and received tenure in 1993 at the School of Urban and Regional Planning, now the Sol Price School of Public Policy. [15] Concerned by an ongoing loss of scientific rigor and economic thinking in the urban planning literature, he began to focus more on his secondary appointment in USC’s School of Engineering. [16] In 1998, he changed his primary appointment to the Viterbi School of Engineering's Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he received tenure while retaining a secondary appointment in the School of Urban Planning and Development. [17] In 2003, Moore applied for and received tenure at the Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, retaining secondary appointments in public policy and civil engineering. [18]

He was appointed chair of the Epstein Department in 2004, serving until 2010. [8]

In 1998, Moore took a sabbatical to work with the California Research Bureau and USC's external affairs office in Sacramento, collaborating with former Santa Clara County supervisor Rod Diridon to draft a budget trailer bill for the California legislature [15] that required federally funded university transportation research centers to automatically received any and all required matching funds from the state [2] , which was signed into law by Governor Pete Wilson in 1999 and played a key role in establishing METRANS as a transportation research institution in Los Angeles. [2]

He founded and directed the transportation engineering program at USC, an interdisciplinary initiative that spanned across multiple departments. He served in several administrative capacities, including 26 years as faculty in residence at the USC Honors House [5] , department chair, vice dean for academic programs, and four terms as [16] president of the engineering faculty at USC. [19]

Moore's tenure at USC was marked by his libertarian views, which often led him to critique progressive political agendas within academia. He believed that certain progressive policies conflicted with his libertarian principles. His opposition to specific administrative decisions, such as the suspension of employer contributions to faculty retirement accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed to a more contentious relationship with USC leadership.

Moore was removed from the Viterbi School dean’s office in 2017 over his opposition to the university’s changes to Title IX rules and the engineering school’s growing embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which Moore contended were being implemented in unsophisticated ways that violated Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. [20] The dean of the Viterbi School broke with standard procedure and forbade a departmental faculty vote on whether Moore should return to the role of Epstein Department chair. [19] [3] In 2018, during the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Moore’s public support for due process in response to allegations of sexual misconduct [21] resulted in student protests calling for Moore’s removal from the faculty. [22] [23]

Near the end of his faculty career, Moore concluded that public policy making was driven almost entirely by political motives, and mostly unaffected by analyses intended to inform decision makers. [22] His proposals for government research funding could only lead to work products that would have little or no impact, and overhead payment that the institution would dedicate to the growth of an administration that was becoming increasingly misguided and parasitic. [23] [3]

In 2022, after 36 years of full-time service, Moore retired from USC and was designated professor emeritus. [3]

He later revealed that his emeritus designation had been the subject of high-level meetings at USC involving the president, provost, his deans, and the general counsel. [24]

He remains critical of the direction that USC and other educational institutions have taken regarding issues of social justice and systemic racism [16] and encouraged by the reforms initiated by second Trump administration. [25]

Research

Moore's funded research [2] focuses on transportation networks, infrastructure risk management, and regional economic modeling. [1] His work in transportation systems involves the analysis of network performance, congestion pricing, and the economic impacts of transit and transportation projects policies. [12] Additionally, Moore's research in disaster resilience assesses risks to infrastructure from natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and terrorist attacks. [26]

Selected publications

Journals

Books

References

  1. 1 2 3 "James Elliott Moore, II". USC Price. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Nie, Lilly. "METRANS | News | Professor James Moore Celebrates 30 Years at USC". www.metrans.org. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Why I'll Never Be Allowed to Teach at USC Again". The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. 2023-07-14. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  4. Smith, Addison (2021-12-30). "WATCH: Why one professor refused to remove his flag". campusreform.org. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  5. 1 2 3 "James E. Moore II, Ph.D., Author at Reason Foundation". Reason Foundation. 2019-05-28. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  6. "IISE Leadership - Past Presidents". www.iise.org. Retrieved 2025-05-15.
  7. https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/INFORMS/75569b9a-b13f-49ed-8f6f-d53eb2c22c33/UploadedImages/Minutes%20&%20Financials%20/2009%20TSL%20Business%20Meeting.pdf 2009 BUSINESS MEETING OF THE TRANSPORTATION SCIENCE AND LOGISTICS SOCIETY IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INSTITUTE FOR OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
  8. 1 2 "USC – Viterbi School of Engineering – Viterbi Faculty Directory". viterbi.usc.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  9. "James E. Moore, II, Author at The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal". The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  10. Clarke, Sara Sidner,Rachel (2019-12-14). "Repentant racist says Stephen Miller fueled her hate | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2025-04-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. "NBHS Graduates 1960–1979 – New Bremen Historic Association". newbremenhistory.org. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  12. 1 2 Jim Moore Sees Faculty Collaboration as Metrans' Distinguishing Feature
  13. "Faculty James E. Moore". GLOBAL EXECUTIVE CONTINUING EDUCATION. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  14. "Faculty Who Live Among Students". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  15. 1 2 "METRANS | News | METRANS Researcher James Moore to Receive WTS Los Angeles Secretary Ray LaHood Award". www.metrans.org. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  16. 1 2 3 "PBS: Think Tank: Biography: James Elliott Moore". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  17. "Dr. James E. Moore, II from USC Visited Tsinghua IE-Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University". www.ie.tsinghua.edu.cn. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  18. "James E. Moore | Newgeography.com". mail.newgeography.com. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  19. 1 2 Archives, L. A. Times (2006-01-24). "Lectures on politics and academics". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  20. Colton, Emma (2021-11-10). "Defiant USC professor won't cave to pressure from students to remove Blue Lives Matter flag". Fox News. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  21. "An email from a USC professor regarding due process in sexual assault allegations stirs up protest and debate". Annenberg Media. 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  22. 1 2 Marchand, Garrett (2023-10-31). "Meet the libertarian professor who raised a ruckus at USC". The College Fix. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  23. 1 2 Gallen, Megan (2021-11-12). "USC professor speaks out on refusal to remove pro-police flag from office: Campus is a 'progressive bubble'". Fox News. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  24. Leef, George (2023-07-14). "How a USC Professor Made Himself Persona Non Grata". National Review. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  25. "Confronting Anti-Blackness and Systemic Racism at USC by James E. Moore, II | NAS". www.nas.org. Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  26. Richardson, Harry W.; Pan, Qisheng; Park, JiYoung; Moore II, James E., eds. (2015). "Regional Economic Impacts of Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters and Metropolitan Policies" . Advances in Spatial Science. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-14322-4. ISBN   978-3-319-14321-7. ISSN   1430-9602.