World-famous fertility expert Professor Baron Robert Winston launched the 23/24 Queen's Academic Lecture Programme with a talk on his life and work this week.
Professor Winston is a leading voice in science, having completed pioneering work on fertility treatments, allowing embryos to be screened for genetic diseases. He is Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College London and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies and has published over 300 scientific papers. He has presented many BBC television series including Your Life in Their Hands, Making Babies, Superhuman, The Secret Life of Twins and Child of Our Time.
He drew on his huge experience to emphasise the importance of persistence and patience in achieving practical outcomes from research.
Almost all of my papers start with a failure - but this failure is a very important part of the process. It is the persistence afterwards that results in the practical outcomes. This was the process behind the genetic techniques we introduced that are now used across the globe.
The other key factor is collaboration. Nobel prizes are mostly given for teamwork even though there may only be one named scientist associated with it. You need to believe that through working like this we can genuinely do things that change the world.
Professor Winston
The Sixth Form Academic Lecture Programme at Queen’s invites leading academics in their field to speak to Year 12 pupils to give them their first flavour of university-style lectures, and also broaden their horizons taking them outside their areas of specialism. Year 11 students are also invited to attend as part of their progression into Sixth Form.
The majority of lectures take place early in the Spring term either in person or via Zoom, using the excellent audio-visual facilities in the School's Virtual Boardroom.
Head of Sixth Form Mr Wilson said: "It is obviously a major coup to be hosting Professor Winston but we are also extremely excited about our future speakers who will be covering a wide range different topics, from management and economics to the causes of anxiety.
“Girls from all year groups are welcome and we hope this year's talks generate a lot of interest.”
Students from local secondary schools are also welcome to attend our lecture programme and can register here.