Richard was elected Honorary Fellow of St Edmunds College in 2023 after being a Fellow since 2014.  He is Head of Space Weather at the British Antarctic Survey where he holds an individual merit promotion reserved for world-leading scientists.   He is also a member of the Executive Team and Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.

Richard has published over 250 research papers on wave-particle interactions, wave propagation and space weather.  He is known for his work showing that plasma waves accelerate charged particles to very high energies and play a major role in the formation of the radiation belts at Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn.  Working with the commercial sector, Richard led two EU projects to turn this basic research into a forecasting system that is now used by the European Space Agency, satellite operators and insurance underwriters to help maintain the safe and reliable operation of satellites.

Richard was awarded the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 2022, the NERC Impact Award for Economic Impact in 2023, the International Kristian Birkeland Medal from the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in 2020, the Appleton Prize from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in 2020, and the Lloyds Science of Risk Prize in 2014.  He was awarded Sc.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2020 for distinguished research.

Richard was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 and Academia Europaea in 2023.  He is also Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Fellow of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), and Fellow and former Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Richard is Chair of the Space Environment Impacts Expert Group that advises the Government on space weather.  He also serves on other Government and UKRI committees.