Richard J. Roberts
| Sir Richard J. Roberts | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Richard J. Roberts |
|
| Born | 6 September 1943 [1] Derby, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | molecular biologist |
| Institutions | University of Sheffield New England Biolabs Harvard University |
| Alma mater | University of Sheffield |
| Thesis | Phytochemical studies involving neoflavanoids and isoflavanoids (1969) |
| Known for | Work on introns Restriction endonucleases DNA methylation Computational molecular biology[1] |
| Influences | David Ollis[2] John Kendrew[2] Jack Strominger[2] Daniel Nathans[2] James Watson[2] |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1993)[3][4][5][6] Fellow of the Royal Society (1995)[1] Knight Bachelor (2008)[1] PhD (1969)[7] |
| Website | |
| www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1993/roberts-autobio.html | |
Sir Richard "Rich" John Roberts (born 6 September 1943, Derby) is a British 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. He currently works at New England Biolabs.[8][9]
Education[edit]
When he was 4, Robert's family moved to Bath. In Bath, he attended City of Bath Boys' School.[10] 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 on his first attempt. He graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and a PhD in 1969.[1] His thesis involved phytochemical studies of neoflavonoids and isoflavonoids.[7]
Awards[edit]
After becoming a Nobel Laureate in 1993 he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the University of Bath in 1994.[11]
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. A refurbished science department at Beechen Cliff School (previously City of Bath Boys' School) was also named after Roberts, who had donated a substantial sum of his Nobel prize winnings to the school.[12]
Roberts was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.[13] He was knighted in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e "ROBERTS, Sir Richard (John)". Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press.(subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e "Richard J. Roberts - Autobiography at NobelPrize.org".
- ^ Shampo, M. A.; Kyle, R. A. (2003). "Richard J. Roberts—Nobel Laureate for Discovery of Split Genes". Mayo Clinic Proceedings 78 (2): 132. doi:10.4065/78.2.132. PMID 12583523.
- ^ Bartnik, E. (1994). "Nobel prizes in physiology, medicine and chemistry in 1993". Postepy biochemii 40 (1): 4–5. PMID 8208634.
- ^ Boman, H. (1993). "The 1993 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine--split genes". Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening : tidsskrift for praktisk medicin, ny raekke 113 (30): 3666–3667. PMID 8278945.
- ^ Anon (1993). "Nobel goes to discoverers of "split genes"". Nature 365 (6447): 597. doi:10.1038/365597a0.
- ^ a b Roberts, Richard John (1969). Phytochemical studies involving neoflavanoids and isoflavanoids (PhD thesis). University of Sheffield. http://www.google.com.
- ^ Roberts, R. J.; Chang, Y. -C.; Hu, Z.; Rachlin, J. N.; Anton, B. P.; Pokrzywa, R. M.; Choi, H. -P.; Faller, L. L. et al. (2010). "COMBREX: A project to accelerate the functional annotation of prokaryotic genomes". Nucleic Acids Research 39 (Database issue): D11–D14. doi:10.1093/nar/gkq1168. PMC 3013729. PMID 21097892.
- ^ Roberts, Ricahrd J.; Varmus, Harold E.; Ashburner, Michael; Brown, Patrick O.; Eisen, Michael B.; Khosla, Chaitan; Kirschner, Marc; Nusse, Roel et al. (2001). "Information Access: Building A GenBank of the Published Literature". Science 291 (5512): 2318a. doi:10.1126/science.1060273.
- ^ Nobel Prize website
- ^ "Honorary Graduates 1989 to present". bath.ac.uk. University of Bath. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- ^ Beechen Cliff School website
- ^ "Humanist Manifesto II". American Humanist Association. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
- People from Bath, Somerset
- People from Derby
- Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
- British biochemists
- British biologists
- British Nobel laureates
- Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization
- Alumni of the University of Sheffield
- Knights Bachelor
- People educated at City of Bath Boys' School
- 1943 births
- Living people
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- English Nobel laureates
- Signers of the Humanist Manifesto
