British physiologist Robert Edwards has won the 2010 Nobel Prize in medicine for the development of in vitro fertilization, a technique that has helped millions of infertile couples to have children.

The Nobel Committee at the Swedish Karolinska Institute, which awards the prize, in its announcement today said that Edwards' contributions "represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine."

Edwards, 85, started working on in vitro fertilization, a procedure in which eggs are fertilized outside the body and implanted in the womb, in the 1950s. He developed the technique together with Patrick Steptoe, who died in 1988.

The first baby born through the groundbreaking procedure was born in 1978 in Britain.

The award for medicine is the first of the annual Nobel prizes to be announced, followed by the prizes for physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, and economics on Monday, October 11.

This year's winners will receive about $1.5 million, a diploma, and a gold medal.

The Nobel Prizes were first handed out in 1901.

諾貝爾獎評審委員會4日宣布，被譽為“世界試管嬰兒之父”的英國科學(xué)家愛德華茲以“對試管授精領(lǐng)域的貢獻”贏得2010年諾貝爾生理學(xué)或醫(yī)學(xué)獎。他曾完成了世界上第一例試管受精手術(shù)，并讓世界上第一個“試管嬰兒”路易絲降臨到人世。

位于瑞典首都斯德哥爾摩卡羅琳醫(yī)學(xué)院的諾貝爾大會稱，“他的貢獻代表了現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)發(fā)展的里程碑?！?br>
“他的成就使治療不育癥成為可能，不育癥折磨著包括全世界10%以上夫婦在內(nèi)的龐大人群。”