Dr. Richard Smith is a marine biologist and conservationist, an award-winning underwater photographer and videographer, an acclaimed public speaker, and the leader of diving expeditions around the world; he's been on more than thirty-five hundred dives since 1996. Dr. Smith has written hundreds of articles, published internationally with a primary focus on conservation, marine life, and travel.

His photographs have been featured around the world, including on dozens of magazine covers and in exhibitions. In 2018, he identified a new species of pygmy seahorse, having first photographed it five years previously. The new species, Hippocampus japapigu, is the size of a grain of rice and from the temperate waters of Japan. Dr. Smith has a bachelor's degree in Zoology, a master's degree in Marine Ecology and Evolution, and a PhD that he received for his pioneering research on pygmy seahorses; it was the first PhD ever awarded for the subject.

Dr. Smith is a member of the IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group, and the world authority on these fishes, and the Global Pygmy Seahorse Expert for iSeahorse.org, which uses citizen science to further research and conservation. He lives in London, England.