Richard Post was born in Pomona, California. He received his B.A. in 1940 from Pomona College and completed his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 1950. He taught physics at Pomona College, worked as a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory,and spent four years as a research associate in physics at Stanford before joining the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as research group leader in the Controlled Thermonuclear Research group in 1951. He was appointed deputy associate director of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Program at LLNL in 1974 and senior scientist for the program in 1987.

Dr. Post has been associated with the Department of Applied Science at the University of California, Davis/Livermore as Professor-in-Residence since 1963.

He is the holder of more than 25 patents in the fields of nuclear fusion, particle accelerators, electronics, and mechanical energy storage.