Burton Richter is a Senior Fellow of Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies, Woods Institute on the Environment, and Precourt Institute on Energy, Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences Emeritus, Stanford University, and is the Director Emeritus, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (formerly Stanford Linear Accelerator Center).
Richter received the Nobel Prize in Physics (1976) and the E.O. Lawrence Medal of the Department of Energy (1976). He received the American Association for the Advancement of Science Philip Hauge Abelson Prize (2007) for his world-class contributions to research, his successful management of a leading scientific laboratory, and his unrelenting efforts to advance science and to promote its responsible use in shaping public policy. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society; a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Past-President of the American Physical Society (1994); and Past-President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1999-2002).
Richter chaired the APS Energy Efficiency Study in 2008 that published "Energy=Future, Think Efficiency, How America can look within to achieve energy security and reduce global warming". He is a member of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee and its Energy Research Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Visiting Group of the Commissaire a l'Energie Atomique (CEA - the French equivalent of the US Department of Energy), the Jason Group, and the Board of Directors for Litel Instruments. He is on the advisory boards of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency. He has served on the Department of Energy's Secretary of Energy Advisory Board and Laboratory Operations Board; and was Chairman of the National Research Council's Board on Physics and Astronomy.
He has been interested in industry and its use of science and technology and has been a member of the General Motors Science Advisory Committee, chairman of the technology advisory board of an artificial intelligence company, and a member of the Board of Directors of Varian Associates, Varian Medical Systems, and Areva Enterprises, Inc.
The University of Texas at Austin