Nobel laureate Richard Roberts says capitalism and health care do not mix
Asia should steer clear of the US funding model for health care, Nobel Prize winning scientist Richard Roberts tells Richard Lord
Richard Roberts probably doesn't fit your stereotypical image of the ivory tower academic scientist.
The biochemist and molecular biologist's credentials are as good as they come: he won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work into the mechanism of gene splicing that made much of the modern biotechnology and gene-science industry possible.
If you're just using health care to make money, you will treat the wrong diseases
But what has always distinguished Roberts' career is his engagement with real-world issues; his insistence that science be applied in people's lives in ways that are helpful to them - and fun.
With that in mind, he spends as much time as he can spare spreading his wisdom to the next generation of science stars, at events such as the recent Global Young Scientists Summit in Singapore, where he delivered lectures and took part in a series of workshops.
"I get a lot of opportunities to do things like this, and I enjoy it very much, but often there just isn't enough time," says the 70-year-old.
"It's often the case at an event like this that you're trying to explain something and then all of a sudden one of the kids asks you a question and you don't know the answer, and you suddenly realise that you're not as smart as you thought."