[2] He is an established authority on the stability of Markov chains, especially applied to Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) theory methodology for a wide range of latent statistical models with applications in spatial statistics, infectious disease epidemiology and finance.
[3][4][5] Roberts was educated at Liverpool Blue Coat School and Jesus College, Oxford, graduating in 1985 in Mathematics[6] and subsequently went on to complete in 1988 a PhD thesis on Some boundary hitting problems for diffusion processes[7] under the supervision of Saul Jacka at the University of Warwick.
Roberts is a talented tournament bridge player, whose achievements include winning the Great Northern Swiss Pairs in 1997,[8] and the Garden Cities Trophy in 2008 and 2013.
He has made fundamental contributions to the theory, methodology and application of Markov chain Monte Carlo and related methods in Statistics.
His work has already found practical application in the study of epidemics such as Avian Influenza and Foot and Mouth disease.