Robert Winston’s early research contributed to a new understanding of the female reproductive system and some of the diseases that affect millions of women worldwide. His work revolutionized in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and the treatment of female reproductive diseases. Winston’s current research activities, a collaboration between researches at the California Institute of Technology and Imperial College, London, has a genetic focus with diverse aims that include improving the production of stem cells from embryonic tissue and reducing genetic abnormalities in embryos. He joins us to lead a discussion on the science behind Chimera and his ground-breaking work in transgenic technology.
This post-show event is sold in combination with a performance ticket.
Lord Winston is Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, runs a research programme in the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, on improvements in transgenic technology in animal models, with a long-term aim of improving human transplantation.
He has around 300 scientific publications in peer-review journals on reproduction and embryology. He is also Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and Chairman of the Royal College of Music.
Robert Winston has been a visiting professor at a number of American, Australian and European universities. He was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005. His awards include a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship 1973-77, a Blair-Bell Lectureship RCOG, 1978, the Cedric Carter Medal, Clinical Genetics Society, 1993 and the Victor Bonney Medal for contributions to surgery, Royal College of Surgeons of London, 1993.
He was Gold Medallist for the Royal Society of Health in 1998. In 1999 he was awarded the Faraday Medal by The Royal Society and the BMA Gold Award for Medicine in the Media. He won the Edwin Stevens Medal (the Royal Society of Medicine) in 2003, was the North of England Zoological Society's gold medallist in 2004 and won the Al Hammadi Gold Medal at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 2005. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary College, and holds honorary Fellowships of the Institute of Biology,the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He has been awarded honorary doctorates at fourteen universities.
His activities in the House of Lords include speaking regularly on education, science, medicine and the arts. He was Chairman of the Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology 1999-2002, initiating enquiries into Antibiotic Resistance, Non-Food Crops, Nuclear Waste, Science and Society, Genetic Databases, Aircraft Passenger Environment, and Science in Schools. He is a board member and Vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Robert Winston is committed to scientific education and regularly writes or hosts popular science programmes for the BBC's main channel and Discovery networks. His series include "Your Life in Their Hands" (five series), "Making Babies, "The Human Body" (three BAFTAs, Emmy nomination and a Peabody award), "Secret Life of Twins" (BMA Gold Medal for best film), "The Superhuman" (Emmy Nomination and Wellcome Award for Medicine and Biology, 2000), "The Threads of Life" (Paris Annual Science Film Prize, 2003), "Child of our Time", "Human Instinct" (Golden Panda Award, Shanghai, 2004 and Emmy nomination), "Walking with Cavemen", "Human Mind", "The Story of God" and "A Child Against All Odds". "How to Sleep Better" won an award for the use of interactive TV, 2005. He won the VLV award for the best individual contribution to British television in 2003. He also regularly gives seminars in schools and universities.
He has published twelve books for lay readership:- "What Makes Me Me" won the Aventis Prize in 2005, and "The Human Mind" was short-listed for the same prize in that year. "Human" won the BMA First Prize for the Best Popular Medicine Book in 2005.
