Richardson was born inWashington D.C. He went to high school atWashington-Lee inArlington, Virginia. He later described Washington-Lee's biology and physics courses as "very old-fashioned" for the time. "The idea of 'advanced placement' had not yet been invented," he wrote in his Nobel Prize autobiography. He took his first calculus course when he was a sophomore in college.[5]
Richardson attendedVirginia Tech and received a B.S. in 1958 and a M.S. in 1960. He received his PhD fromDuke University in 1965.
At the time of his death, he was the Floyd Newman Professor of Physics atCornell University, although he no longer operated a laboratory. From 1998 to 2007 he served as Cornell's vice provost for research, and from 2007 to 2009 was senior science adviser to the president and provost. His past experimental work focused on usingNuclear Magnetic Resonance to study the quantum properties of liquids and solids at extremely low temperatures.
Richardson was anEagle Scout, and mentioned the Scouting activities of his youth in the biography he submitted to the Nobel Foundation at the time of his award.[1]
Richardson claimed that he did not believe in ananthropomorphic God, but it is unclear what specific beliefs he held.[6]
Richardson was born to Robert Franklin Richardson, atelephone engineer.[7] He married Betty Marilyn McCarthy, a fellow physics PhD student from Duke, on 29 Sep 1962 at the Immaculate Conception Catholic church inDurham, North Carolina.[8]
