Dr. Richardson completed the MD-PhD program at Virginia Commonwealth University’s  Medical College of Virginia and neurosurgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco. His clinical expertise includes both awake and asleep DBS for movement disorders, psychiatric indications, and epilepsy, awake brain mapping, robotic-assisted surgery for both stereo-EEG and DBS implantation, and Responsive Neurostimulation for epilepsy.  Prior to joining Mass General, Dr. Richardson was Director of the Epilepsy and Movement Disorders Surgery Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). There, he established one of the world's leading intraoperative-MRI functional neurosurgery programs, encompassing DBS for movement disorders, gene therapy clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease, and laser thermal ablation for epilepsy, work which now continues at MGH. 

Dr. Richardson is recognized internationally for his work, having published numerous related papers and book chapters, and frequently speaking at national and international meetings. He is a member of the Executive Board of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.

Dr. Richardson also is a neuroscientist who founded the Brain Modulation Lab, which conducts human systems neuroscience research using intracranial recording and stimulation.