Winston, Robert (1940– )

English doctor, research scientist, and broadcaster. An authority on in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment and reproductive genetics, he is emeritus professor of fertility studies at Imperial College, London, and also chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. He has been president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2004–05 and has presented several scientific television series. A life peer in the House of Lords since 1995, he chaired the chamber's select committee on science and technology 1999–2002.

Having graduated from London University in 1964, he briefly gave up clinical medicine before joining Hammersmith Hospital in London as a registrar in 1970. He progressed to consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Hammersmith from 1978, professor of fertility studies at Imperial College School of Medicine from 1987, dean of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 1989–97, and director of National Health Service research and development for Hammersmith Hospital 1998–05. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Royal College of Physicians of London, and a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Winston has also promoted popular scientific education, his many television series including Your Life in Their Hands (1979–87), Making Babies (1995), The Human Body (1998), Secret Life of Twins (1999), Child of our Time (2000), Superhuman (2001), Walking With Cavemen (2003), The Threads of Life (2003), and A Child Against All the Odds (2006). In addition, he has written a number of popular science books.