Richard Manasseh is a mechanical engineer with a PhD in applied mathematics, specialising in fluid dynamics. He is a Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and earlier worked for CSIRO on R&D and technology commercialisation. His research over the past 25 years has focused on wave modes and oscillators in fluids and their interactions.

By early 2024 his work had been cited over 4000 times, achieving a h-index of 37. He has applied this fundamental research to diverse industries in Australia and abroad, and has studied ocean wave power since 2010. Together with colleagues in other research organisations and Australian wave-power companies, he has been working on arrays of ocean wave-energy converters since 2014.