Roberts came to NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics in 1963 as a field aide. Since then, he's studied a variety of plants including oil seed crops such as crambe and quayule. More recently, Roberts has focused on cotton. His recent work involved analyzing cotton fiber quality, breeding for bacterial blight resistance and developing high-quality cotton varieties for New Mexico. He worked with other researchers to produce New Mexico Sea Island cotton, a variety with long, slender fibers suitable for making silky fabrics and polished cottons.
Sea Island flourishes in the hot New Mexico climate.
Roberts helped the college's Agricultural Experiment Station earn recognition as one of the most influential cotton breeding programs in the United States. In 1996, the journal Crop Science cited the station's genetic contribution to upland varieties released between 1970 and 1990. Roberts received his bachelor's and master's degrees from NMSU and was recognized as an outstanding alumnus in 1988. During retirement, he hopes to find more time for his hobbies, which include hunting, fishing, taxidermy and horticulture.