Richard Mushotzky has a long history of research in high energy astrophysics and has recently focused on understanding the triggering mechanisms in active galaxies (why some massive black holes are accreting and others are not), the nature of ultra-luminous x-ray sources and whether they are intermediate black holes, the evolution of active galaxies across cosmic time, the nature of the innermost regions around supermassive black holes, and the physics of clusters of galaxies and their use as tracers of metal production in the universe. He has been involved in numerous high energy astrophysics missions, most recently Swift, Chandra, XMM, Suzaku and Hitomi. This research has led to over 400 referred publications and over 30,000 citations as well as PhD thesis for 18 students. Dr. Mushotzky has also worked on developing and shepherding new NASA missions having been on the ASCA, Chandra, XMM, Suzaku and Hitomi science working groups and is now Principle Investigator in a NASA funded study for a Probe class high energy mission called AXIS. Recently Dr. Mushotzky has been awarded the 2022 American Astronomical Society Henry Norris Russell prize for lifetime achievement in astronomical research.