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.

[11] before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,[14] where he was hired by James Dewey Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a fellow Nobel laureate.

[4] The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in his 1977 study of adenovirus,[14] 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.

[6] Roberts was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1995[4] and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in the same year.

In 2016, Roberts and other Nobelists composed and signed a "Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs)" addressed to the leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and global governments and Sir Roberts has advocated for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in general and Golden Rice in particular to advance health in developing countries, noting the high safety record of GM foods.

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