During 1969–1972, he did postdoctoral research at Harvard University. before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was hired by James Dewey Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a fellow Nobel laureate. In 1977, he published his discovery of RNA splicing. In 1992, he moved to New England Biolabs. The following year, he shared a Nobel Prize with his former colleague at Cold Spring Harbor Phillip Allen Sharp. Roberts's discovery of the alternative splicing of genes, in particular, has had a profound impact on the study and applications of molecular biology. The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in his 1977 study of adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for causing the common cold. Robert's research in this field resulted in a fundamental shift in our understanding of genetics, and has led to the discovery of split genes in higher organisms, including human beings.
Awards and honours
In 1992, Roberts received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University, Sweden. After becoming a Nobel Laureate in 1993 he was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Bath in 1994. Roberts also received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1994. Roberts was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995 and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in the same year. In 2005, a multimillion-pound expansion to the chemistry department at the University of Sheffield, where he had been a student, was named after him. A refurbished science department at Beechen Cliff School was also named after Roberts, who had donated a substantial sum of his Nobel prize winnings to the school. Roberts is an atheist and was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. He was knighted in the . Roberts is a member of the Advisory Board of Patient Innovation, a nonprofit, international, multilingual, free venue for patients and caregivers of any disease to share their innovations. Roberts has been a keynote speaker at the Congress of Future Medical Leaders. He also is the chairman of The Laureate Science Alliance, a non-profit supporting research worldwide. In 2016, Roberts and other Nobelists composed and signed a "Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture " addressed to the leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and global governments and Sir Roberts has advocated for Genetically Modified Organisms in general and Golden Rice in particular to advance health in developing countries, noting the high safety record of GM foods.
