Professor Robert Edwards, Emeritus Professor of Human Reproduction at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in the field of Physiology or Medicine.

Professor Edwards, who is also a Pensioner Fellow at Churchill College, was given the award “for the development of in vitro fertilization” (or IVF). IVF is a medical treatment for infertility, which allows the sperm to fertilise the egg outside the body, resulting in what is known as a “test-tube baby”.

Professor Edwards began his pioneering research on fertility treatments in the 1950s, with the vision of being able to treat infertility by fertilising the egg outside the body. Following over two decades of research, the world’s first “test-tube baby” was born in 1978.

This led to the establishment in 1980 of Bourn Hall, Cambridge, the world’s first IVF clinic. Professor Edwards formed the clinic with his long-time research partner, Dr Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist surgeon.

Since the treatment began in 1978, approximately 4 million individuals have been born with the help of IVF therapy.

According to the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, the body responsible for awarding the Prize in medicine, Professor Edwards’s “achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition afflicting a large proportion of humanity including more than 10% of all couples worldwide.

“His contributions represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine.”

The news of Professor Edwards’s win has elated the Cambridge community. According to a first-year Medical Sciences student, “It is such a great honour for Cambridge to have been at the forefront of some of the most influential medical research of the last century.”

He added, “Professor Robert Edwards is an inspiration to many, including many families who were blessed with children because of the research that he did.”

These sentiments were echoed by many parents who have conceived their children using IVF therapy. In an outpouring of support in online forums, many thanked Professor Edwards, with one commenter saying, “Thanks to you I have two lovely kids.”

Professor Edwards was educated at the University of Bangor and the University of Edinburgh. He joined the Department of Physiology at Cambridge in 1963.