David Richardson received his BS and PhD in fundamental physics from Sussex University, UK. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a Professor at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), Southampton University, UK and served as Deputy Director of the ORC from 2000-2023. He was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 1991 in recognition of his pioneering work on short pulse fiber lasers.

Richardson is a prominent figure in the international photonics community. He has enjoyed considerable success as an entrepreneur, co-founding SPI Lasers Ltd (acquired by Trumpf in 2008) and Lumenisity Ltd (acquired by Microsoft in 2022). He has also led several government-funded collaborative research programs throughout Europe and as served as a General Chair for both OFC and ECOC. He has co-authored more than 550 peer-reviewed journal papers and been awarded over 20 patents. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, Optica, and the IET. He has won various awards for his research, including the 2024 John Tyndall Award, the IET Team Innovation Award, Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and the Harold Hartley Award from the Institute of Measurement and Control. He is also co-recipient of the Horizon2020 "Breaking the Barriers in Optical Communications" Inducement Prize.