Yesterday the British biologist Robert Edwards, a pioneer of artificial fertilization, died following a long illness.
Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born on September 27, 1925 in Batley, England. After serving in the British Army during World War II, Edwards greduated in biology with a specialization in zoology at the Bangor University, Wales. Later, he studied at the Institute of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh, where he received a Ph.D. in 1955.
It was in those years that Robert Edwards became interested in fertilization and around 1960 he started studying human fertilization. From 1963 he worked at the University of Cambridge and in 1968 he started his collaboration with the gynecologist Patrick Steptoe on the problem of artificial fertilization.
Despite much controversy and opposition, including the British Government’s refusal to fund their research, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe developed their techniques of artificial fertilization and on July 25, 1978 Louise Joy Brown was born, the first baby born with that technique.
In 1980, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe founded the Bourn Hall Clinic, which became one of the most important centers of the world for the treatment of infertility. In 1984 Edwards became a member of the Royal Society, the English national academy of sciences.
In 2010, Robert Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of in vitro fertilization, the greatest recognition for his research.
In 2011, Robert Edwards was knighted with the Order of the British Empire for services to human reproductive biology.
Robert Edwards was married to Ruth Fowler, granddaughter of the physicist Ernest Rutherford and daughter of the physicist Ralph Fowler. Together they had 5 daughters but Edwards is in a sense the father of some millions of children who have been born thanks to the in vitro techniques developed by him or anyway following his research. His work has led to major improvements in the understanding of human reproduction, embryonic stem cells and pre-implantation diagnosis. He really leaves a huge legacy.
