He came to the University of Kansas in 1989 to occupy the Hall Chair in American History, thus returning to his undergraduate institution and his home region. Throughout his career, Worster has written several books including "The Wealth of Nature"; "Under Western Skies"; "Rivers of Empire", "Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s"; "A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir"; "Nature's Economy"; and "A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell". He is the former president of the American Society for Environmental History and a member of the Western History Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Association. Throughout his career, he has lectured extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as throughout North America.