Modern science is fast-moving, and no laboratory can exist for long with a program based on old facilities. Innovation and renewal are required to keep a laboratory on the frontiers of science.

With it he led a team that discovered a new subatomic particle he called a ψ (psi). In May 2007 he visited Iran and Sharif University of Technology. Richter and Ting were jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

This discovery was part of the so-called November Revolution of particle physics. He led the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) team which co-discovered the J/ψ meson in 1974 alongside the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) team led by Samuel Ting.