Graham Richards

Education Graham Richards was born on 1 October 1939 in Hoylake, England, to Percy Richards and Gwendoline Julia Richards (née Evans).

He received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry with first class honours from the University of Oxford in 1961. He then studied the electronic spectroscopy of diatomic molecules with Richard F. Barrow, degrees from the University of Oxford in 1964.

Career and research After his DPhil, Richards continued his spectroscopic work with fellowships in Oxford (ICI Research Fellowship, Junior Research Fellowship at Balliol College) and Paris, France (Centre de Mécanique Ondulatoire Appliquée).

He soon returned to Oxford as a research fellow at Balliol College, Oxford (1964–1966), before being elected to a Fellowship in Chemistry at Brasenose College (1966–2007), his alma mater. He was promoted to a lecturer at Oxford University (1966–1994), to reader (1994–1996), and to professor (1996–2007). He served as chairman of the chemistry department from 1997 to 2006.

Industry involvement In the fourth year of his degree course Richards' research project led him to using Oxford's Ferranti Mercury computer to solve integrals. Returning to Oxford, he worked on ab initio computations and applied computational techniques to solving quantum mechanical problems in theoretical chemistry, in particular studying spin-orbit coupling.

"The work represents perhaps a near perfect instance of theory being in harmony with experiment, each aspect vital to the other and the combination much more than the sum of the separate parts." – Graham Richards The society started the Journal of Molecular Graphics in 1983. He served as the editor-in-chief of the journal from 1984 to 1996. The journal's name changed to Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling in 1997.

In 1989, Richards was the scientific co-founder (with Tony Marchington, David Ricketts, James Hiddleston, and Anthony Rees) of Oxford Molecular Limited. The company developed software for modelling of small molecules and proteins, and drug design.

The company was possible in part because of economic and legal changes under the government of Margaret Thatcher that enabled British universities to become involved with venture capital and technology transfer. As Oxford Molecular Group, Ltd. (OMG) the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1992, making the university £10 million. The company was worth £450 million at its peak but was eventually sold for £70 million.

Richards was instrumental in raising £64 million to fund a new laboratory for Oxford University through an innovative funding approach. £20 million worth of funding began with an "unusual collaboration" between Richards and David Norwood.

Through this arrangement the Chemistry Department has contributed over £100 million to the University of Oxford. It has brought around 60 spin-out companies into existence.

The Financial Times has described the approach as "the way universities should be financed in the future". The project involved collaboration between Intel, United Devices, and the Centre for Computational Drug Discovery at the University of Oxford,

Richards formed the spin-out company InhibOx Ltd. in 2001. In 2002, Richards donated his shares, twenty-five per cent of the company, to the National Foundation for Cancer Research. In 2017, InhibOx relaunched as Oxford Drug Design Ltd., with a new focus on antibiotic discovery.

Personal life and death Richards married his first wife, Jessamy Kershaw, on 12 December 1970. She died of cancer in November 1988. On 5 October 1996, Richards married Mary Elizabeth Phillips, director of research planning at University College London. He had two sons and three stepchildren.

Selected books

Awards and honours Richards was a council member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Institution, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, The Times Higher Education Supplement (2006) considered Richards to be one of twelve academic "super-earners" in the United Kingdom. Times magazine's first Eureka issue (2010) included Richards in its list of the top 100 British scientists. Richards' work has been acknowledged through a number of more formal awards and honours, including: 2018, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) 2018, Richard J. Bolte Sr. Award by the Science History Institute 2017, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC) 2011, Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales 2010, Co-Vice-President of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2001, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Queen's Birthday Honours 1996, The Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Award, Foundation for Science and Technology 1998, Mullard Award, Royal Society