Barton “Buzz” Thompson, ’73, MBA ’76, JD ’76, is a global expert on environmental conservation. He is the Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law at Stanford Law School and a professor of environmental behavior sciences in Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability. He also is a senior fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, which he co-founded in 2004 and then co-directed for a dozen years. He is the author of multiple books on natural resources and the environment. He serves on the boards of multiple land trusts and conservation organizations, including as a trustee of The Nature Conservancy. He believes that the best way to learn about a country is to walk it, meeting its people and enjoying its unique beauty. He has taught western water policy while rafting with his students down the Colorado River, public land policy while hiking national parks in Utah, and South African environmental law while on safari with his law students.
At Stanford Law School: Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law since 1995; vice dean, 1999–2004; founding director, environmental and natural resources program
Professor of environmental behavioral science, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability,
Senior fellow and founding Perry L. McCarty Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Former senior fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Former special master, United States Supreme Court
Chairman of the board, Resources Legacy Fund; California trustee, The Nature Conservancy
BA, economics and political science, 1972, Stanford University
MBA, 1976, Stanford Business School
JD, 1976, Stanford Law School