Jean Purdy, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Jean Purdy

UK IVF pioneer

Date of Birth: 25-Apr-1945

Place of Birth: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 16-Mar-1980

Profession: nurse, researcher, embryologist

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Jean Marian Purdy (1945–1985) was a British nurse and embryologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment.
Purdy was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards and obstetrician and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe for developing in vitro fertilisation.
Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born on 25 July 1978, and Purdy was the first to see the embryonic cells dividing.
Edwards was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the development of in vitro fertilisation; however, because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, neither Purdy nor Steptoe were eligible for consideration.
Purdy was a co-founder of the Bourn Hall Clinic but her role there and in the development of IVF was ignored for thirty years.