Lord Robert Winston

The keynote speaker Robert Winston is both professor of Science and society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility studies at Imperial College London, a university with one of the strongest international science bases. The college concentrates on advancing the understanding and interaction between scientists and the public through a wide range of initiatives. In August 2009 the reach out lab opened offering stimulating practical science to schoolchildren.

Robert runs a research program in the institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, on improvements in transgenic technology in animal models, his long-term aim is to improve human transplantation. His research has led to the development of gynecological microsurgery and various improvements in reproductive medicine, which was later adopted internationally. His work on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis enabled families carrying gene defects to have children free of fatal illness. This includes healing families with sex-linked disorders, single gene defects and chromosomal abnormalities; he has held twenty six patents.

A brilliant mind, our speaker Robert Winston has published roughly three hundred scientific publications in journals on reproduction and embryology and has published fourteen books. He also regularly writes or hosts science programs for BBC and Discovery networks. Some of his work include “SuperDoctors” (received a nomination for the Grierson Award), “The Human Body” (three BAFTAs, Emmy nomination and a Peabody award), “The Superhuman” (Emmy Nomination and Wellcome Award for Medicine and Biology, 2000), “Human Instinct” (Golden Panda Award, Shanghai, 2004 and Emmy nomination). He won the VLV award for the best individual contribution to British television in 2003.

More extensively, the canny speaker Robert Winston has been a visiting professor at a number of American, Australian and European universities. Throughout his career Winston has been awarded honorary doctorates at twenty universities. He has received awards like the Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship 1973-77, a Blair-Bell Lectureship RCOG, 1978. He won the Edwin Stevens Medal (the Royal Society of Medicine) in 2003, was the North of England Zoological Society’s gold medalist in 2004 and won the Al Hammadi Gold Medal at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 2005.

Robert Winston’s 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. He is a board member and Vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. In June 200, our speaker Robert Winston was voted ‘peer of the year’ by his fellow parliamentarians.