Richard de Grijs received his M.Phil. (in Physics and Astronomy) as well as his Ph.D. from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. After completing his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1997, he held two postdoctoral positions, at the University of Virginia (USA) and the University of Cambridge (UK). In 2003, he obtained his first academic staff appointment, at the University of Sheffield (UK), and in 2009 he joined the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University (China). Richard now hails from Sydney, Australia, where he joined Macquarie University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering as Associate Dean (Global Engagement) and professor of astronomy in March 2018. Since June 2023, he is also the Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute–Beijing. Richard was awarded the 2012 Selby Award for excellence in science by the Australian Academy of Science, a 2017 Erskine Award from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) and a 2017 Jan Michalski Award from the Michalski Foundation (Switzerland). His research interests include young, massive star clusters and their evolution, stellar variability and the astronomical distance scale, and the history of maritime navigation. His forays into the history of science and medicine led to a number of awards, including the 2022 Blacktown Mayoral History Prize and the 2021 Hella Mannheimer Award. He has thus far published two monographs in the history of science.