Jean Purdy

Jean Marian Purdy (25 April 1945 – 16 March 1985) was a British nurse and embryologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment. Purdy was responsible with Robert Edwards and 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 30 years.