[2] Richardson completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham in 1978 with a thesis entitled "Ergodic properties of stopping time transformations”.
[3][4] She then went to study at Université Paris-Sud supervised by Jean Bretagnolle was awarded a Doctorat d'État for a thesis entitled "Processus spatialement dépendants: convergence vers la normalité, tests d'association et applications" in 1989.
Richardson has made significant contributions to Bayesian statistical methodology and the application of Markov chain Monte Carlo.
[7] She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics,[8] of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis[9] and of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
[10] She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to medical statistics.