Professor Jacob Roberts serves as interim dean in the College of Natural Sciences. Roberts received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Colorado in 2001. He joined the Department of Physics in 2003 as an assistant professor, and in 2015 he was appointed as a full professor and department chair. 

Roberts is an atomic physicist with projects focusing on plasma physics and light-atom interactions at extremely cold temperatures. His research has been recognized through numerous awards. Most notably he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President George Bush in 2007, and in 2009 he was named a CSU Monfort Professor. 

In addition to research, Roberts has mentored and graduated nine Ph.D. students who have gone on to careers in industry, government research, and academia. He was honored with the Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring in 2007 and was nominated for the CSU Alumni Association’s Best Teacher Award in 2008.  

In his nine years as chair of the Department of Physics, Roberts focused on leading from a place of collaboration. Through shared effort among department faculty and staff, Roberts oversaw many initiatives that have driven physics forward at CSU. These include hiring new faculty which greatly increased research expenditures; advancing student success through the creation of new summer and online courses and establishing a learning assistants program in first-year courses; improved lab, study, and teaching facilities; and partnering with donors to establish the first professorship for the department and a paid summer undergraduate research program. Among his accomplishments, the one most often cited among faculty and staff was his effort to radically increase the quality of department coffee.