Richard G Compton is Professor of Chemistry and Aldrichian Praelector at Oxford University, United Kingdom where he is also Tutor in Chemistry at St John's College. He received his PhD in 1980 whilst at Imperial College, London.

Compton has broad interests in both fundamental and applied electrochemistry and chemical sensing including nanochemical aspects. He has published in excess of 1500 papers (h = 103; with more than 45000 citations excluding self-cites) and 7 books. The 3rd edition of his graduate textbook Understanding Voltammetry (with C E Banks) was published by World Scientific Press I(WSP) in 2018. He is a co-author of the scientific biography A G Stromberg - First Class Scientist, Second Class Citizen. Letters from the GULAG and a History of Electroanalysis in the USSR (WSP, 2011).

Patents have been filed on 25 different topics including novel pH sensors, gas sensing and the detection of garlic strength and chilli heat in foodstuffs (commercialised by Zimmer & Peacock). The Senova pHit Scanner based on Compton group patents - the worlds first calibration-free pH meter - won the prestiguous 'best new product' award at PITTCON March 2013.

Compton holds Honorary Doctorates from the Estonian University of Life Sciences and Kharkov National University of Radio-electronics (Ukraine), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, of IUPAC and of the International Society of Electrochemistry and a Member of the Academy of Europe (MEA).He currently holds honorary positions at Central South Universityand Xiangtan Universities (Hunan, PRC) and is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Electrochemistry Communications published by Elsevier and is the joint Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Electrochemistry launched in 2017