Robert Winston
Boards now sponsor science they do not fully understand, in fields where the ethical questions arrive faster than the regulation. Genetics, fertility, biomedical data and synthetic biology now sit on corporate roadmaps and government policy desks, but most leaders cannot interrogate the underlying claims. The gap between the people building this technology and the people accountable for it is widening.
Robert Winston is a pioneering fertility scientist, House of Lords peer and BBC science broadcaster who helps leaders and audiences make sense of genetics, biomedical innovation and the ethics of human science.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Robert Winston
- A first-hand pioneer of in vitro fertilisation and the team that, with Alan Handyside in 1990, developed pre-implantation genetic diagnosis at Hammersmith Hospital. Few speakers can explain the genetic revolution from inside the laboratory that built it.
- Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize winner for communicating science, with three decades of presenting flagship BBC science series, including The Human Body, Child of Our Time and Walking with Cavemen. The translation skill is verified by the audience and by the Society.
- An active legislator on biomedical policy in the House of Lords, named Peer of the Year in 2008 for his work on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Buyers get the scientist, the broadcaster and the lawmaker in one room.
- Chairman of the Genesis Research Trust, which has raised more than £13 million to fund women’s reproductive health research at Imperial College London. The credentials are operational, not honorary.
Biography highlights
- Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies, Imperial College London.
- Life peer as Baron Winston of Hammersmith, 1995; Labour peer in the House of Lords; Peer of the Year, 2008.
- Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize, 1999, for the public communication of science.
- Presenter of BBC series Your Life in Their Hands, The Human Body, Child of Our Time, Walking with Cavemen and The Story of God; The Human Body won three BAFTAs.
- Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, 2001 to 2018; founder of Imperial’s Wohl Reach Out Lab for school-age science.
- Author of more than 20 books and over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers on human reproduction and genetics.
Biography
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis was developed at Hammersmith Hospital in 1990 by a team including Alan Handyside and Robert Winston. That single breakthrough redrew the moral and commercial map of reproductive medicine: it allowed embryos to be screened for inherited disease, and it forced a generation of legislators, ethicists and clinicians to argue out where the limits of human genetic intervention should sit. Winston was at the centre of that argument, and has stayed there.
His credentials are unusually operational. He is Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London. He chairs the Genesis Research Trust, which has raised more than £13 million for reproductive health research at Imperial. As Baron Winston of Hammersmith, he sits as a Labour peer in the House of Lords and was voted Peer of the Year in 2008 for his work on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, the legislation that defines what is and is not permissible in UK fertility science.
The public face is just as substantial. The Royal Society awarded him the Michael Faraday Prize in 1999 for communicating science. Three decades of BBC science programming, including The Human Body, Child of Our Time and Walking with Cavemen, have given him an unusual ability to make complex biology comprehensible to non-specialist audiences. The Human Body alone won three BAFTAs.
For organisations, the value is direct. Winston speaks with the authority of a scientist who built the technology, the political experience of a legislator who has to govern it, and the practiced clarity of a broadcaster who has spent thirty years explaining it.
Key speaking topics
- Genetics and the future of human reproduction
- Ethics of biomedical and reproductive technology
- Public understanding of science
- IVF, fertility and pre-implantation diagnosis
- Innovation in medical research
- Science policy and regulation
- Health, ageing and the human body
Ideal for
- Boards and executive teams in pharmaceuticals, biotech, healthcare and medical devices.
- Healthcare and life sciences leadership conferences, clinical academies and research bodies.
- Innovation, R&D and technology strategy forums where biomedical ethics is on the agenda.
- After-dinner audiences at university, livery, professional society and corporate events.
Audience outcomes
- A clear, non-technical account of how genetic science actually works, and where it is going next.
- Informed perspective on the ethical and regulatory questions that follow from genetic and reproductive technology.
- Direct exposure to the thinking of a scientist who has shaped both UK fertility law and frontline IVF practice.
- A sharper sense of how to communicate complex science to non-specialist boards, regulators and publics.
Talks
A tour of the science of the human body, drawing on Winston’s BBC work and decades of clinical practice.
Key takeaways:
- How genetics, environment and behaviour interact to shape human health
- What recent biomedical research is changing about how we treat disease
- The ethical questions that follow from extending human capability through technology
A senior-audience briefing on where the genetics revolution is heading, from one of the scientists who helped start it.
Key takeaways:
- The current frontier of genetic editing and pre-implantation diagnosis
- The regulatory and ethical fault lines that boards and policymakers will have to navigate
- Practical implications for healthcare, pharmaceuticals and public policy
A working scientist’s view of how genetic research is funded, governed and translated into clinical reality.
Key takeaways:
- How genuine medical breakthroughs are produced and reproduced
- Why public communication and political engagement matter to the science itself
- Where the next decade of innovation in reproductive and genetic medicine is likely to come from