Dr. Barton Thompson

Biography

Barton 'Buzz' Thompson is a globally recognized expert in water and natural resources law. He focuses on improving resource management through legal, institutional, and technological innovation. As the founding Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, he is also a Senior Fellow and director of the Water in the West program. He serves as a Senior Fellow by courtesy at Stanford's Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and has been a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Thompson has founded the Environmental and Natural Resources Program at the law school and has been crucial in faculty initiatives at Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). He has served as Special Master in the United States Supreme Court case Montana v. Wyoming, addressing an interstate water dispute, and has been a member of the Science Advisory Board for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His leadership roles extend to various boards, including the Resources Legacy Fund and the California Nature Conservancy. Previously, he was a partner at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, specializing in water resources law, and has clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Judge Joseph T. Sneed of the Ninth Circuit.

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