Pete Richards is a Research Associate with the Water Quality Laboratory at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, where he is responsible for data analysis, statistical applications, and the development of custom computer programs for the laboratory's on-going investigations of the impacts of agriculture and other rural land uses on water quality. In addition, he is a principal investigator on many of the laboratory's grants, and authors many of the laboratory's reports and papers.

He has a B.A. degree in Geology from Oberlin College, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geology from the University of Chicago, and has done postdoctoral research in ecology and limnology at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan. He has nearly 25 years of full-time research experience in the study and interpretation of nutrient, sediment, and pesticide transport patterns in rivers and streams, and their implications for ecosystem and human health. He is the first or sole author of more than 20 papers in major peer-reviewed journals, and a contributing author for many more.