James T. O’Connor, P.E., PhD, is the C.T. Wells Professor of Project Management at the Univ. of Texas (UT) at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering and has been active within the Construction Industry Institute (CII) since its founding. He earned a PhD in civil engineering from UT and a BS from Oklahoma State Univ. He is the author of 50 monographs, over 210 refereed journal and conference articles, and more than 130 technical reports on capital project management. He has had more than 60 consulting engagements with a wide variety of clients in both private and public sectors. At UT he is the co-creator of the Projects with Underserved Communities service-learning program, in which student project teams have planned, designed, and implemented community infrastructure projects in 10 different countries. He has designed and taught more than 240 industry short courses on a wide variety of capital project-related topics. Honors include National Academy of Construction, ACE International Award for Innovative Practices in Higher Education, Outstanding CII Researcher Award; National ASHTO/FHWA Quality Initiative and Value Engineering Awards; and ASCE Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize (twice); among others.