Dr. Richardson is a conservation biologist with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, where he leads the California Bumble Bee Atlas, a community science project to inventory the native bees of the state. In this capacity, he has primary responsibility for most aspects of the project, including training volunteers, obtaining permits, field inventory, species identification, and fundraising. More generally, his research focuses on the ecology, distribution, and declines of North American bumble bees. Dr. Richardson previously worked as an environmental consultant, studying pesticide risk to bee pollinators, and as an ecologist for Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. He is co-author of a range of scientific publications on bees, including Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide (2014), the standard reference manual on this group of insects. He is an expert in the inventory and identification of bumble bees, and has extensive experience training others to collect bumble bee distribution data in the field.