Jim Lester President and CEO
JLester@HARC.edu | vCard281-363-7904 (voice)281-363-7924 (fax)
Dr. Jim Lester holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently the President of the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). Previously, he served as Vice President and chief operating officer of HARC. He joined HARC in 2002 as the Director of HARC’s Environment Group. Dr. Lester is responsible for strategic direction of HARC’s programs which are designed to make more sustainable our management of water, air and natural resources. From 1975 to 2002 he was a faculty member and administrator in the University of Houston System where he held administrative positions at the University of Houston-Clear Lake as a Dean, Associate Vice President, and Director of the Environmental Institute of Houston. During his tenure at HARC, Dr. Lester has been engaged in projects that analyze compilations of datasets from multiple sources to obtain new insights for watershed or landscape management. He also has served in a leadership capacity for the HARC program on air quality science. Dr. Lester serves in an advisory capacity to a variety of organizations. He serves as the Chair of the Monitoring and Research Committee of the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, vice chair of the Trinity San Jacinto Basin and Bay Expert Science Team on environmental flows, and on advisory committees for the Texas Sea Grant Program, Texas A&M University College of Geosciences, and the Texas Environmental Research Consortium.
Expertise
Ecology Environmental Management Public Policy
Programs & Projects
Air Quality Research Galveston Bay Status & Trends (Statistical Analysis) Galveston Bay Watershed Ecosystem Services Texas Groundwater Quality Monitoring Strategy