Sir Richard Roberts is the Chief Scientific Officer of New England Biolabs. His scientific career is rooted in an interest in molecular biology, which led him to Harvard University in 1969, where he worked on deciphering the sequence of
nucleotides in a form of ribonucleic acid known as tRNA. In 1972 he moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where his research involved “mapping” the location of various genes in adenovirus. This work led to the discovery that genes could be present in several, well-separated DNA segments, later called introns. For this work Dr. Roberts was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1993. After helping New England Biolabs get started in 1975 and serving as their Chief Scientific Advisor, he moved there permanently in 1992. Dr. Roberts has been increasingly interested in the implementation of new technologies in the developing world, including novel vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases.