Professor Richards is Emeritus Professor of Critical Care and Pulmonology at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He qualified in medicine in 1978, specialised in internal Medicine in 1985 and subsequently qualified as a pulmonologist and intensivist. He attained his PhD in Medicine in 1992 and was elected to the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2020. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the SA Thoracic Society in 2022.

He was awarded the Mandela Medal in Gold by the president for distinguished service related to the passing of Nelson Mandela in 2014. He has been awarded best research paper and best publication on several occasions at congresses of the SA Thoracic Society and the SA Critical Care Society of Southern Africa, most recently in 2023.

He has authored 11 book chapters and 243 peer reviewed, indexed scientific papers and his research has been cited 6207 times. His “h index” is 43.