Richard J. Roberts was born September 6, 1943 in Derby, England. He received his B.Sc. from University of Sheffield in England with a major in chemistry in 1965. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1968. During his time at Stanford, he was introduced to the nascent field of molecular biology through a book by John Kendrew, describing the early history of crystallography and molecular biology at the MRC Laboratory in Cambridge, where James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA. Wishing to use his knowledge of chemistry to pursue biological problems, Roberts began a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard University with Jack Strominger.

Roberts remained at Harvard for three years, working as a research associate in biochemistry, where he studies the tRNAs involved in biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. He was then recruited to be senior staff investigator by James Watson to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. There he studied the newly discovered Type II restriction enzymes. During the next few years more than one hundred such enzymes were discovered and characterized in his laboratory. From 1986 to 1992 Roberts served as the Assistant Director for Research at CSHL. He now works at New England Biolabs as a Research Director.

Roberts studies of transcription led to the discovery of split genes and mRNA splicing in 1977 for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine in 1993. The main theme of Roberts's work has centered on his belief that the structure of the molecules must be understood in order to learn their function. His work has focused on understanding the sequence of macromolecules and cataloguing modifications on these molecules, as well as discovering the three-dimensional structure and post-translational modification of proteins. Roberts is primarily interested in working with restriction endonucleases and DNA methylases. He has also been a strong proponent and practitioner of using computational methods and techniques in molecular biology.

Roberts has received many awards over the course of his career including the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1993), the Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement (1994), the Convocation Award, Sheffield University (1994), and the Faye Robiner Award, Ross University (1994). He has been distinguished by honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Uppsala (1992), Bath University (1994), Sheffield University (1994), and Derby University (1995).