Tracy Hester
Instructional Professor
University of Houston Law Center
Professor Tracy Hester teaches environmental law at the University of Houston Law Center, where he co-directs the Law Center’s Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Law Center. His research focuses on the innovative application of environmental laws to emerging technologies and unanticipated risks, including climate engineering, deep decarbonization (particularly in energy production), nanoscale materials and microplastics, and climate liability.
Professor Hester is President of the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2024 (after serving as a Regent from 2018 to 2021). He served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy and Resources in 2011 through 2014, and he was elected to the American Law Institute in 2004. In 2014, Prof. Hester served as the interim Director of the North America Commission on Environmental Cooperation’s Submission on Environmental Matters Unit in Montreal, Canada. The Environmental Law Institute also named him as its Environmental Scholar in Residence for 2015.
Prior to joining the University of Houston Law Center, Prof. Hester practiced for 25 years and served as a partner in Bracewell LLP for sixteen years. He led that firm’s Houston environmental group.
