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Robert Winston, Baron Winston

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Professor Robert Winston

Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston (born July 15, 1940) is a British doctor, scientist, politician, and television presenter.

Life and career

Winston was born in London to Laurence Winston and Ruth Winston-Fox. His mother became mayor of the former Borough of Southgate, now absorbed into the London Borough of Enfield in 1961.

He attended St Paul's School (London). He then graduated from The London Hospital Medical College, London University, in 1964 with a degree in medicine and achieved prominence as an expert in human fertility. For a brief time he gave up clinical medicine and directed in the theatre. On returning to academic medicine, he developed tubal microsurgery and various techniques in reproductive surgery, including sterilization reversal. Having joined Hammersmith Hospital as a registrar in 1970, he was appointed to a Wellcome Research Fellowship and then as Associate Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1975. He was a scientific advisor to the World Health Organisation's programme in human reproduction from 1975 - 1977. He joined the The Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London as consultant and Reader, in 1977. After conducting research as Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1980, he returned to the UK setting up the highly successful IVF service at Hammersmith Hospital which pioneered various improvements in this technology, and became Dean of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in London until its entry into Imperial College in 1997. As Professor of Fertility Studies at Hammersmith, Winston led the IVF team which pioneered preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which identifies defects in human embryos. He was the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 2004 to 2005. He is currently researching male germ cell stem cells and methods for their genetic modification. He has published over 300 scientific papers in peer-review journals.

Winston is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG), and of the Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP), and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS Edin), Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (FRCPS Glasg), and the Instititute of Biology (FIBiol). He holds honorary doctorates from fourteen universities. He is a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Winston is well-known for presenting many BBC television series, including Superhuman, The Secret Life of Twins, Child of Our Time, "Human Instinct", and the BAFTA award-winner The Human Body. A traditional Jew with an orthodox background, [1] he also presented The Story of God, exploring the development of religious beliefs and the status of faith in a scientific age. He also presented the BBC documentary "Walking with Cavemen" a major BBC series which, although it presented some controversial views about early man, was endorsed by a number of leading anthropologists and other scientists. One arguable theory which the series presented was that Homosapiens have a uniquely developed imagination which helped them to survive. His documentary film "Threads of Life" won the international science film prize in Paris, in 2005. His recent BBC series "Child Against All Odds" studied the ethical questions which are raised by the practice of IVF treatment; the accompanying book is a wide-ranging discussion of the history and implications of reproductive engineering. He has appeared on The Archers radio soap as a fertility consultant, though not as himself.

Winston was made a life peer in 1995 as Baron Winston, of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. He sits on the Labour Party benches in the House of Lords and takes the government whip. He speaks regularly in the House of Lords on education, science, medicine and the arts. He was recently Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology and is a board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

In 1973, Winston married Lira Helen Feigenbaum. They have three children.

Current posts

Awards

Television documentaries (as presenter)

Robert Winston won the VLV Award for the most outstanding personal contribution to British television in 2004

Selected bibliography

  • "Infertility - a sympathetic approach" (1985)
  • "Getting Pregnant" (1989)
  • "Making Babies" (1996)
  • "The IVF Revolution" (1999)
  • "Superhuman" (2000)
  • "Human Instinct" (2003)
  • "The Human Mind" (2004). Nominated for Royal Society Aventis Prize
  • "What Makes Me Me" (2005) Royal Society Aventis Prize
  • "Human" (2005) BMA Award for best popular medicine book
  • "The Story of God" (2005)
  • "Body" (2005)
  • "A Child Against All Odds" (2006)
  • "Play It Again" (2007)
  • When science meets God, Robert Winston, BBC News, Friday, 2 December 2005.
  • Why do we believe in God?, Robert Winston, The Guardian, Thursday October 13, 2005
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