Rick completed his undergraduate work in biochemistry at Vassar College and received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University, where he did his thesis research in the laboratory of Efraim Racker. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Paul Greengard's laboratory at Yale University School of Medicine, Rick joined the faculty of Rockefeller University, where he was an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. He is currently a Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Chemistry at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.