Advice From Sir Richard Roberts

On Tuesday, March 1 The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Student Council presented a series of lectures by Sir Richard Roberts, PH.D., recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 

Roberts presented a general lecture to the campus community from 11am-12pm. We collected a series of his most inspirational quotes for those looking to dream big in whatever their desired field may be. View highlights of the talk.

 

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Sir Richard Roberts addressing the crowd

"Always have a passion, it allows you to have a focus in your career. If you develop a new passion, follow that."

 

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Sir Richard Roberts addressing the crowd

"Chemistry was a chance to be a different sort of detective. It was presented as a puzzle for me to solve."

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Sir Richard Roberts addressing the crowd

"The Grandmother Test: The grandmother test ensures that people of all fields understand what you are doing, not just specialists. You have to be able to explain what you are doing as if you were explaining it to your grandmother so that she can go tell her freinds what her grandson is doing and how impressive it is."

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Sir Richard Roberts explaining his path to the Nobel Prize

"Failure is not a bad thing. Failure is a great thing: it means you either screwed up or nature is trying to tell you something big. Don't be disheartened by failure."

Written by Mike Colbert. Photographs by Steffanie Padilla and Jorge Hurtado.