Richard Robertson is a geologist and volcanologist who has worked in the Caribbean region for more than 35 years. He earned is bachelor's and PhD in geology at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Jamaica and his Master of Philosophy inVolcanology at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
Born in St. Vincent, he joined the staff at the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) in 1993 after serving for six years as head of the local volcano monitoring unit in St. Vincent. He served several tours of duty as chief scientist of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory from 1995-1999 and was its director from October 1998 to March 1999. He was head of the Seismic Research Unit from 2004-2008 and director of SRC from 2008-2011 and 2013-2019. Since joining the SRC he has been involved in the establishment of volcano monitoring networks (mainly geodetic), ongoing public education and outreach campaigns throughout the Eastern Caribbean, the ongoing eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat, and the 2020-2021 eruption of La Soufriere Volcano on St. Vincent.
Robertson has worked in most aspects of the SRC operations but has been most closely associated with its public education, hazards assessment, ground deformation, and geothermal monitoring programs. His research interests include all aspects of volcanic hazard and risk, the evolution of volcanism in the Eastern Caribbean, and public engagement in science. He has a keen interest in the dissemination of scientific information to vulnerable island communities and in building capacity at the community level to cope with hazards.