Theodore William Richards (1868-1928), US chemist. Richards studied at Harvard University, staying there to carry out research and rising to full professor in 1901. He led the Department of Chemistry from 1903 and was appointed Erving Professor of Chemistry in 1912. Richards was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1914) for his work with atomic weights. This work involved the exact determination of the atomic weights of more than 30 chemical elements. Other awards included Foreign Membership of the Royal Society (1919) and the Society's Davy Medal (1910).