Robert Edwards, an IVF Doctor, Receives Nobel Prize

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute announces on Oct. 4 in Stockholm that Robert Edwards of Britain won the Nobel Medicine Prize for the development of in-vitro fertilization (IVF). (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

Robert Edwards, a British physiologist, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine for pioneering the development of in-vitro fertilization, or IVF.

Edwards, 85, started working on the process in the 1950s, and his work led to the birth of the first test tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.

“His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine,” the Nobel Assembly at the Swedish Karolinska Institute said.

“His achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity including more than 10 per cent of all couples worldwide,” it added.

Edwards’ research partner, gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, died in 1988.

The US$1.5 million prize is the first of five Nobel prizes to be announced over the next week.

The Peace prize, controversially awarded to Barack Obama in 2009, will be announced on Friday.

Several Chinese dissidents have been nominated for the Peace prize, with human rights activist Liu Xiaobo considered the most likely choice. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail for his participation in Charter 08, which called for political reform and democracy in China.