Marcel Roberts is an alumnus from John Jay College, where he obtained a B.S. in Forensic Science, with the class of 2002. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, he began his research career by studying the phytoremediation of heavy metals by H. Vulgare. He furthered his education by going to graduate school at Boston College where he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry under the guidance of Shana O. Kelley Ph.D. There, he took on several projects, such as the study of electron transfer through abasic DNA, the study of the spectroscopic properties of peptide mimetic fluorescent probes and the development of an nanowire chip for the electrocatalytic detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) activity.  Soon after he moved on to do post doctoral research in biomedical engineering at McGill University in the Trabrizian group. He expanded his field of research by helping develop and digital micro-fluidic sensor for cancer biomakers via surface plasmon resonance (SPR). In 2009 he became a full time assistant professor at his alma mater John Jay College. <spantimes new="" roman';="" font-size:="" 14px;"="">His current research means to develop a novel fingerprint scanner capable of detecting the presence of explosives and also drugs.