He served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology from 2003 to 2008, and was elected a Fellow of AAI in 2019.
[1] Rich received an AB from Oberlin College in 1962 and an MD from the University of Kansas in 1966.
At Baylor College of Medicine, Rich was appointed associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and internal medicine (1973–1978), professor (1978–1995), and head of the immunology section (1978–1998).
[2] At Baylor, Rich's research involved T-lymphocytes and regulation of the immune response.
He also headed a search committee for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to establish a program at Baylor in structural biology.