Rate My Professor Allen Moore

Allen J. Moore is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Georgia, with prior appointments as Head of the Department of Genetics and Professor of Evolutionary Genetics. A faculty member in Biology, he earned a BS in Zoology from Arizona State University in 1982 and a PhD in Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1988. He completed postdoctoral fellowships as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine (1989-1990) and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Northwestern University Medical School (1988-1989). Moore's academic career began at the University of Kentucky, where he served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Evolutionary Genetics in the Department of Entomology from 1990 to 1998. He then held positions as Program Director at the National Science Foundation (1998-1999), Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Manchester (1999-2005), and Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the University of Exeter (2005-2011), before joining the University of Georgia in 2011. From 2017 to 2022, he was Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Moore's research in evolutionary genetics examines the genetic mechanisms underlying complex social behaviors, including parental care, mating, aggression, communication, and development, using model insects such as burying beetles (Nicrophorus spp.), crickets, milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus), and whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci). His foundational work on indirect genetic effects and interacting phenotypes has shaped the field, with landmark publications including 'Evolutionary consequences of indirect genetic effects' (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 1998; 943 citations), 'Interacting phenotypes and the evolutionary process. I. Direct and indirect genetic effects of social interactions' (Evolution, 1997; 880 citations), and 'Visualizing and quantifying natural selection' (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 1995; 710 citations). He has edited influential books such as The Princeton Guide to Evolution (2013) and Social Behaviour: Genes, Ecology and Evolution (2010), secured over $14 million in extramural funding, and achieved an h-index of 48. Moore has made significant editorial contributions as Founding Editor-in-Chief of Ecology and Evolution (2011-present) and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2007-2011). His honors include Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor (2014), Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award (2017), and T. P. Cooper Outstanding Research Award from the University of Kentucky (1996).