Rich is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, where he has conducted research on intelligence for more than four decades. He received his doctoral degree in psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1975. His early work at the National Institute of Mental Health used brain imaging to study individual differences in intelligence, and he later expanded this line of research at UC Irvine to include neuroimaging, genetics, and lifespan development. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Intelligence (2016–2024), as President of ISIR (2016–2017), and most recently as founding editor of Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities. He has supervised doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows, published extensively in scientific journals, and is the author of The Neuroscience of Intelligence (2017). He has also contributed to the public understanding of intelligence research through media appearances, popular writing, and his role in developing the documentary film The Intelligent Brain.