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IVF pioneer's birth celebrated 100 years on

Harriet HeywoodCambridgeshire
News imageReuters Close-up of Prof Edwards in his elderly year. He has short gray hair, wearing large clear-framed glasses and a light-colored jacket over a collared shirt. The background is plain and out of focus.Reuters
Prof Sir Robert Edwards joined the University of Cambridge in 1963 and went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2010

The legacy of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who pioneered in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is being celebrated ahead of what would have been his 100th birthday.

Prof Sir Robert Edwards will be remembered at the University of Cambridge physiology building, where he first fertilised a human egg in a test tube, later, ahead of what would have been his birthday on Saturday.

Prof Edwards, who died aged 87 in 2013, helped transform fertility treatment alongside Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy.

Since the birth of Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, in 1978 researchers believe more than 13 million children have been born using the technique.

News imageUniversity of Cambridge Jean Purdy and Prof Edwards pose outdoors in a vintage setting, framed by a leafless tree and distant buildings. Ms Purdy wears a cardigan and skirt, while Prof Edwards is dressed in a suit and tie, holding a pair of glasses. University of Cambridge
Letters released in 2019 from Prof Edwards (right) showed he fought for Jean Purdy's (left) contribution to IVF to be published

Prof Edwards spent much of his career in the department of physiology at the university.

With gynaecologist Mr Steptoe and technician and embryologist Ms Purdy, he pioneered the technique of IVF, in which eggs are fertilised by sperm in a laboratory, creating an embryo that is transferred into a woman's womb.

News imageUniversity of Cambridge Prof Edwards at a symposium in Berlin on sperm capacitation. He is formally dressed and stands beside a blackboard filled with diagrams and handwritten notes. He gestures with a long pointer toward a circular schematic and a graph labeled with variables 'a' and 'b'. The board also includes references to developmental stages, such as 'Foetus' and numerical ranges.University of Cambridge
Prof Edwards was born in Batley, West Yorkshire, in 1925 and served in the Army during World War Two

A two-part event will celebrate Prof Edwards' life and mark what would have been his 100th birthday.

It will feature scientific talks and clinical practice in the Physiology Lecture Theatre, where Prof Edwards fertilised a human egg in a test tube.

An evening panel discussion is open to the public at Churchill College, Cambridge, where Prof Edwards was a fellow from 1979 and member from 1974.

Among the panellists are Louise Brown, Dr Jenny Joy, one of Prof Edwards' daughters, Emma Barnett, a journalist and BBC presenter with a young IVF child, and Dr Mike Macnamee, former CEO of the world's first IVF clinic.

News imageUniversity of Cambridge Sepia-toned photo of Prof Edwards in a suit smiling while seated in a cluttered office, with papers, calendars, and a window in the background. Taken at the University of Cambridge Physiology Department.University of Cambridge
Prof Edwards joined the Marshall Lab, University of Cambridge Physiology Department, in 1963

Prof Kathy Niakan, director of the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, said scientists at Cambridge were continuing Prof Edwards' legacy.

"To be part of this field today is a unique opportunity for discovery and innovation, and a great honour to carry forward Sir Bob Edwards' vision in advancing our understanding of human reproduction," she said.

Dr Joy added: "Our family is delighted to be involved in this event, working with the Loke Centre... and Churchill College, which both meant a great deal to our father."

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