Daniel D. Moran

Profile

I am a scientist studying resource use and GHG emissions associated with global supply chains. I contribute to developing input-output models which provide Scope 3 carbon footprint results. I also work with Scope 1 emisisons models. The tools I use come from applied data science and economics.

I have also worked on Wall Street pricing ESG risk at MSCI and assisted Nobel laureate Paul Romer writing an Priciples of Economics textbook. I helped build the original Ecological Footprint accounts and worked at several dot-com startups while growing up in California.

Key words: data science; industrial ecology; environmental economics; carbon footprinting; biodiversity footprints; embodied water; scope 3; consumption-based accounting; LCA; input-ouput; material flow analysis; high performance computing

Google Scholar (12,000+citations; H-index 45) | ORCiD | LinkedIn | Publons
Download my 1 page resumé or full CV

Contact

Email: daniel.moran@ntnu.no
Tel. +47.735.939.88

Industrial Ecology Program
Department of Energy and Process Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Høgskoleringen 5, Trondheim 7034, Norway

On campus: Realfagbygget E4-156

Grants and Awards

• Clarivate/Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2022*
• Clarivate/Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2021
• Clarivate/Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2020
• Clarivate/Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2019
• Stanford/Elsevier/Scopus: Highly cited researcher during 2021
  Top 1.26% percentile in Environmental Sciences; top 3% in Economics
• Stanford/Elsevier/Scopus: Highly cited researcher during 2020
  Top 1.52% percentile in Environmental Sciences
• Stanford/Elsevier/Scopus: Highly cited researcher during 2019
  Top 1.55% percentile in Environmental Sciences

* Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers™ are 1 in 1,000.


• Actionable Data Indicators for Consumption-Based Emissions: London and New York City (Technical Advisory Board member; $110,000; C40 Cities. 2022)
• The Economics of Planetary Boundaries (Partner; €1,925,000 FORMAS. 2020)
• Young Research Talent Grant (FRIPRO): The Environmental Footprint of Cities, a New Approach (PI, $900,000, NFR. 2019)
• Value-at-risk to global supply chains from disruption to ecosystem services (PI, $50,000, United Nations Environment Programme. 2018)
• The Carbon Loophole in Climate Policy: Quantifying the Embodied Carbon in Traded Products (Partner, $100,000, ClimateWorks Foundation)
• FOOTPRINTS2.0: Linking Spatial GIS Data to MRIO Global Economic Models (wrote proposal; lead researcher, €650,000, NFR. 2016)
• University of Sydney Faculty of Science Scholarship for Postgraduate Research. 2010-2013. €97,000.
• 2015-2019. Contributing researcher. PRINCE: Policy-relevant indicators for national consumption and environment (total budget $1,500,000 Funder: Sweden/MISTRA)
• 2013-2016. Contributing researcher. CARBON CAP project on demand-side emissions reductions strategies (total budget €3,500,000, funder EU FP7)
• 2011-2014. Contributing researcher. CREEA project on environmental and economic accounting practices (total budget €4,400,000, funder EU FP7)

Press

I love communicating the science I work on. Uptake of my work includes:

• The study I led on mapping biodiversity footprints of products, printed in Nature Ecology & Evolution, was widely covered in the press, including by National Geographic, Scientific American, TIME, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
• Our paper on the scope of individual action to reduce the EU's global carbon footprint was discussed in a special report by The Economist about what individuals and companies can do to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.
• OpenGHGMap.net, which maps CO2 emissions for 108,000 EU cities, has received >300,000 views. In 2022 I presented this work at the US National Academies of Science.
• The Eora global supply chain database which I helped develop and continue to maintain, documents >5 billion global supply chains and their embodied carbon and resource footprints. That model has supported over 1,000 scientific papers, underpinned research results appearing in Nature and PNAS, and is is used by the UN, IMF, World Bank, and a number of large firms (names withheld).
• Our study on Scope 3 carbon footprint of 13,000 cities globally (citycarbonfootprints.info) was covered by Scientific American, National Geographic, Newsweek, the World Economic Forum, and Forbes, among others.
• Our seminal study on calculating biodiversity footprints published in Nature was widely covered in the press, including by Scientific American, BBC, Reuters, Le Monde, and many national magazines and newspapers (see #11 below). My colleague Edgar Hertwich wrote a nice commentary about the paper.
• Our study on the environmental footprint of foods (non-paywalled preprint PDF) which covered 99% of all foods, published in Nature Sustainability, and reported on by the Washington Post.

Teaching and Supervision

• Input-Output Analysis, Trade, and Environment (TEP4222, 7.5 ECTS credits), head instructor 2021, 2019; co-instructor 2022, 2020
• Industrial Ecology and Input Output Analysis (EP8119, 7.5 ECTS credits, doctoral seminar), course lecturer. 2021, 2022
• Invited instructor on Lund University's SAIL sustainability course in 2016. The course was held aboard a working square-rigged ship. My group rebuilt the original World3 system dynamics model as an offline, paper-based classroom game.
• Lecturer, EDGE Summer School, Bratislava School of Economics. 2017.
• Supervision: Johannes Többen (postdoc), Heran Zheng (postdoc), Kajwan Rasul (PhD), Max Koslowski (MSc), Milda Petersone (MSc)

Qualifications

• 2013 - PhD, School of Physics, The University of Sydney
• 2007 - MS, Environmental Studies and Sustainability, Lund University
• 2001 - BA, Philosophy, Whitman College

Main Projects

• The Eora MRIO provides Scope 3 footprint data for 15,000 sectors worldwide
• Carbon Footprints of 13,000 Cities project
• OpenGHGmap estimates direct CO₂ emisisons for 116,000 cities and counties in Europe.
• For students: 9 tough questions to help sharpen your paper