Since stepping down as laboratory director in 1999, I have devoted an increasing fraction of my time to international issues. I am involved with energy, environment, and sustainability issues, particularly as they involve new energy sources free of greenhouse gases.

With it he led a team that discovered a new subatomic particle he called a ψ (psi). In May 2007 he visited Iran and Sharif University of Technology. Richter and Ting were jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

This discovery was part of the so-called November Revolution of particle physics. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974 alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) team led by Samuel Ting.