Rick has been using a guided inquiry approach to teaching and chemistry since 1994, and is the co-author of POGIL materials for general chemistry and physical chemistry. In addition, he has developed guided inquiry experiments for use in the general chemistry laboratory. Rick has organized numerous symposia at national ACS and BCCE meetings concerning POGIL (and active learning more generally) throughout the chemistry curriculum, and has given dozens of presentations, posters, and workshops on POGIL. He is also coauthor of several journal articles and book chapters concerning POGIL, and the coeditor of the ACS Symposium Series volume: Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning.

Rick received an A.B. in chemistry from Williams College and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University. He is a retired Professor of Chemistry at Franklin & Marshall College and currently serves as the Executive Director of The POGIL Project and chair of the Board of Directors. He is  the 2016 recipient of the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education from the American Chemical Society and, along with his late colleagues Jim Spencer and Frank Creegan, was also the co-recipient of the 2015 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry from the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society.