Idaho in 1973. He received a Masters degree in Physics in 1977 from Virginia Polytechnic Institue and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. His research there involved laser optics and its application to light scattering experiments. In 1980, he completed his PhD dissertation entitled, "The Perception of Moderate Color Differences in Surface-Color Space".
In 1998 Dr. Rich joined the Sun Chemical Corporation. His current responsibilities include visual and instrumental tolerancing, corporation wide instrument reproducibility and color management strategies and the technology behind color management for packaging printing, optical calibration and lighting engineering for Sun Chemical world-wide. He holds 14 US patents, 11 World patents and 21 applications.
Has been awarded the Nickerson Service award from the Inter-Society Color Council in 1999, the National Printing Ink Manufacturers award for Technical Achievement in 2008, a Thomas Alva Edison award for innovation by the Research Council of New Jersey in 2008, the Robert F Reed Medal from the Printing Industries of America in 2013, the Mattiello Memorial award from the American Coatings Association in 2015, the Godlove Award from the Inter-Society Color Council in 2019 and the Presidents Award from the Flexographic Technical Association in 2019 .
Dr. Rich has published on all aspects of Color Science and Engineering, including visual perception, instrumentation, and mathematical modelling.