Richard J. Roberts

Richard John Roberts (born September 6, 1943 in Derby) is an English biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.

Roberts is the son of a motor mechanic and housewife. When he was 4, the family moved to Bath. In Bath, he attended the Beechen Cliff School. As a child he at first wanted to be a detective and then, when given a chemistry set, a chemist. He failed his Physics A-level exam the first time he took it.

The Science Centre at Beechen Cliff School, Bath, a secondary school where Roberts was a pupil, has been named in his honor http://www.beechencliff.bathnes.sch.uk/background.htm ; a poster in the entrance hall details his achievements and bears a replica of his Nobel Prize medal.

In 2005, a multi-million pound expansion to the chemistry department at the University of Sheffield, where he had been a student, was named after him.