Robert Winston is widely regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished academicians and medical professionals. He is known as Lord Winston because of the numerous high-profile accolades and honors he has received. He is now an honorary fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Institute of Biology, among other notable and significant institutions around the world. He has looked into different critical parts of reproductive surgery over the years and has published numerous historical papers and studies on the subject. Lord Winston is adamantly opposed to the commercialization of fertility treatment, believing that patients are frequently deprived of effective treatment in order for them to return and seek repeat treatment, generating more revenue. Aside from his medical job, he has also worked as a popular television host and a powerful politician. He has hosted several BBC shows and is a member of the Labour Party in the House of Lords. He is also the Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, as well as a member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology’s board of directors and Vice-Chairman.
Childhood and Adolescence
Laurence and Ruth Winston-Fox had three children, the eldest of whom was Robert Winston. His mother was the Mayor of the erstwhile Southgate Borough.
Winston’s father died as a result of medical malpractice when he was a child. He was only nine years old at the time. As a result of this, he eventually decided to pursue medical education.
He received his primary schooling at London’s St Paul’s School before enrolling at The London Hospital Medical College. He earned a degree in medicine and surgery from the college in 1964 and went on to become a well-known expert in human fertility.
Career of Robert Winston
Following his training, he momentarily abandoned clinical medicine in favor of a career as a theatre director. He won the National Director’s Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969.
After returning to school to study medicine, he began inventing tubal microsurgery and other reproductive surgery techniques, including sterilization reversal.
He started as a registrar at the Hammersmith Hospital in 1970 and later became a Wellcome Research Fellow.
He became an Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1975. He was the scientific advisor to the World Health Organization’s human reproduction program for two years, from 1975 to 1977.
He became a consultant and Reader at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1977. Later, as a Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, he did research.
In 1980, he went to the United Kingdom to establish an IVF clinic at Hammersmith Hospital. During his studies, he was a trailblazer in bringing forth several technological advancements.
During his time at Hammersmith, he pioneered research on preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which assisted in the detection of defects in human embryos.
He was elected Dean of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in London, a position he held until the Imperial College and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology merged in 1997. Later in his career, he was named Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College.
He also chairs the Women-for-Women Appeal charity and is Chairman of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Trust.
He was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for a year, from 2004 to 2005.
He is currently researching at Imperial College London’s Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology alongside Carol Readhead of the California Institute of Technology on male germ cell stem cells and strategies for genetic manipulation.
Aside from his medical work, he hosted several BBC television shows, including Superhuman, The Secret Life of Twins, Child of Our Time, Human Instinct, and the BAFTA-winning The Human Body.
In keeping with his religious identity as an orthodox Jew, he also presented The Story of God, which looked at the evolution of religious beliefs and faith in today’s scientifically inclined world.
He attempted to learn to play the saxophone in the television series “Play It Again.” Surprisingly, it was decades after he had attempted to study music, with his most recent attempt being when he was 11 years old.
In the BBC program ‘Walking with the Caveman,’ he presented a controversial interpretation of early man. His theory was well received by anthropologists and scientists who shared his viewpoint.
He was appointed a life peer in 1995 as Baron Winston of Hammersmith, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, for his political activism. He reportedly expresses his views on science, medicine, and the arts while sitting on the Labour Party bench in the House of Lords.
He is also the Chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee. He also holds the position of Chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Achievements & Awards
He has received honorary doctorates from as many as sixteen universities around the world over the years.
He is a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Institute of Biology, among others.
He is also a patron of The Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, where he chairs the Societal Issues Panel.
He has received various honors throughout his life, including the Cedric Carter Medal, Victor Bonney Medal, Michael Faraday Prize, Edwin Stevens Medal, Aventis Prize, and Al-Hammadi Medal, to name a few.
He won the gold prize at the Royal Society of Health in 1998. He won the British Medical Association Gold Award for Medicine in the Media the following year.
He won the VLV Award for the most outstanding personal contribution to British television in 2004.
‘Threads of Life,’ his documentary, won the international scientific film prize in Paris in 2005.
The City of Westminster honored him in 2011 at a tree-planting event in Marylebone.
Personal History and Legacy
In 1973, he married Lira Helen Feigenbaum, better known by her stage name Lady Winston. Three children have been born to the couple.
To encourage science literacy and education, he established the Reach Out Laboratory at Imperial College. Furthermore, he offers approximately 20 to 30 scientific seminars per year.
He is a die-hard Arsenal Football Club supporter.
Robert Winston’s Net Worth
Robert Winston is one of the wealthiest doctors in the world, as well as one of the most popular. Robert Winston’s net worth is estimated to be $1.5 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.
Trivia
He is an English surgeon and scientist who led the IVF team that developed preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which detects problems in human embryos before they are implanted.