Robert Winston, Baron Winston

Robert Winston, Baron Winston, born in London in 1940, is a British doctor and scientist known above all for his work on human fertility. After graduating from the London Hospital Medical College in 1964 he went on to work in gynaecology and human reproduction, joined Hammersmith Hospital in 1970 and later ran its in vitro fertilisation service. He developed tubal microsurgery and other techniques in reproductive surgery, including sterilisation reversal, and in 1979 performed the first fallopian tube transplant. With Alan Handyside he led the group that pioneered pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in 1990, allowing embryos to be screened to prevent inherited disease. He became Dean of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, professor of fertility studies and later Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College London. He is also a television presenter, a Labour life peer since 1995 and a former president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and has written widely on fertility treatment and its commercialisation.