Richard Green works primarily on astronomical site protection. He convenes the consortium of Arizona professional observatories to educate policy makers about limiting light pollution. He is Steward's representative to the Southern Arizona Optics Cluster and the Arizona Tech Council. He leads policy efforts for the AAS and IAU to mitigate the impacts of satellite constellations. He chairs the IAU Working Group on protecting astronomy on the Moon. He advises the US Extremely Large Telescope Program on operational and programmatic issues. He is interested in quasar demographics, including a collaboration with Xiaohui Fan's group to characterize high-redshift quasars. He also pursues the information in AGN emission-line profiles through near-IR spectra.
