Richard Goodman is a senior scientist in the Vollum Institute. He also holds appointments as professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. After receiving his B.S. degree in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1976. Goodman trained in clinical medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center from 1976 to 1978 and was an endocrinology fellow at New England Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been at the Vollum since 1990 and served as the Institute's director from 1990 until 2016.

Dr. Goodman's contributions include the characterization of the cAMP regulated enhancer (CRE), identification of the CREB coactivator, CBP, and one of the first genome-wide analyses of transcription factor binding sites in metazoan cells. He has trained 14 graduate students and 29 fellows, many of whom have gone on to have successful careers as independent investigators.