Dr Mark Richards has a BSc in chemistry and PhD in atmospheric Physics from Imperial College London. His research centred on the spectroscopic study of nitric acid vapour for atmospheric remote sensing retrievals. After working in finance for a while, Mark returned to Imperial as a Postdoctoral Researcher within the High Energy Physics Group to manage a Technology Transfer program and subsequently cofounded Duvas Technologies Ltd – a spin-out technology business specialising in wireless air sensing and monitoring.

Currently, Mark works as Deputy Admissions Tutor for the physics department at Imperial and is Principal Investigator for the Strengthening Learning Communities Project. He’s also been involved in numerous programs that aim to encourage more students from diverse backgrounds to pursue science and engineering as career choices and founded The Blackett Lab Family, the first UK-wide network of Black physicists.

In 2019 Mark was formally elected a Fellow of the City & Guilds Institute of London (FCGI) in recognition of his ‘unwavering support to education and training of young people’ and in 2022 he received both the President’s Award for Excellence in Culture and Community, and the Inaugural Royal Society Research Culture Award.