Roberta completed her Bachelor of Arts (History and English) and Bachelor of Science (Honours I) at the University of Sydney, Australia. She studied marine biology and fisheries ecology at The University of Bergen, Norway. Her research focused on marine biology and climate change, including a year as a Research Assistant at The University of Sydney, conducting climate change experiments and collecting data on marine species in The Great Barrier Reef. As a PhD candidate, she focused on the effects of ocean acidification and warming on marine calcifying organisms in the Mediterranean Sea, aiming to contribute to the understanding of climate change impacts on marine life.