Obituary: Professor Brian Lieberman

Professor Brian Abraham Lieberman sadly passed away on Monday 20 February 2023.

Brian was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1942. His early education was at Grey College in Bloemfontein from 1955-1959, and he obtained his degree in medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1965. He trained at hospitals in Soweto and Capetown but then left South Africa mainly because of his abhorrence of apartheid.

Brian moved to London in 1971 to take up a post at St Mary's Hospital. There he specialised in laparoscopic sterilisation, on which he published a number of research papers from 1974 onwards including in the Lancet in 1976.  

Brian took up a post at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in September 1978, two months after the birth of the world's first IVF baby Louise Brown, just across town at Oldham Royal Hospital. Inspired by the early work of fertility pioneers Steptoe and Edwards, and feeling strongly that IVF treatment should be available on the NHS, Brian established the world's first publicly-funded IVF unit at St Mary's in 1982. He founded the Department of Reproductive Medicine and remained medical director until his retirement in 2007. He also established the private Manchester Fertility Services clinic in 1986 and remained a director until 2009. 

Professionally, Brian made extremely important contributions to the field of IVF from the early days onwards. Dame Mary Warnock's report in 1984 led to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (1990) following a vigorous debate in Parliament in 1989, and Brian served as a member of the resulting Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority from 1992-1998. Brian was a leader in the development of clinical practice in IVF, fertility preservation, embryo research and embryonic stem cell biology. He founded the National Egg and Embryo Donation Society, the forerunner of the National Gamete Donation Trust. Brian wrote over 100 academic papers and numerous textbooks and chapters over a research career from 1969-2011. He was made an honorary professor at the University of Manchester in 2006 and an honorary member of the British Fertility Society in 2018. 

Brian was also instrumental in the careers of many in reproductive medicine. He strongly supported training of African doctors and as a result a hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, is named after him. To his enormous credit, he placed great value on the expertise of others and particularly enjoyed surrounding himself with people who in his words 'know things that I don't'. In that respect he was an excellent leader.

He recruited me in 1996 and we spent many happy and highly productive years working together. Brian strongly supported safe and effective treatments and allied research in reproductive medicine, pioneering among other things elective single embryo transfer to reduce the risks of multiple pregnancy, embryo freezing including the first studies on children born from frozen embryo transfer (with Dr Stephen D'Sousa and Professor Alastair Sutcliffe), and fertility preservation for male and female cancer patients through freezing of sperm, eggs, embryos and ovarian tissue (with Professor John Radford at the Christie Hospital, Manchester).

When embryonic stem cell biology came along, Brian encouraged me to go into this area and was an active collaborator. Brian and I obtained one of the first MRC grants to establish human embryonic stem cells in the UK, and he was a member of the subsequent NorthWest Embryonic Stem Cell Centre in Manchester which derived and leased 17 such stem cell lines. 

Brian had many interests outside of academia, including a long-standing interest in African art and travel in the African continent, including an overland trip to climb Mount Kenya to raise money for charity. Brian was a keen sportsman, he represented his school at rugby, cricket and swimming. In later life, he became an avid golfer and is now buried as close as possible to the eighth hole at his golf club.

Brian was a Manchester United season ticket holder at Old Trafford (although to my horror he later bought season tickets for City as well so that he would have somewhere to go when United was playing away!). Brian had a great sense of humour and loved to play tricks; in my case when I was in Manchester for an extended three-day job interview, he insisted on driving me to his house via Manchester City's Maine Road football ground, just so I had to look at the home of 'the other lot'.  

Brian was always a passionate advocate of the patient perspective in treatment, and devoted time and energy to encouraging patient networks in fertility, in gamete donation and in the famous test tube baby parties where he would delight in gathering together hundreds of families who had received treatment in Manchester. 

Brian was tirelessly supported in these endeavours by his wife Bernice who survives him, along with two sons who are medical doctors and a daughter who is a barrister. Brian made a huge impact on the lives of many and will be sadly missed by his many friends, colleagues and those that he taught and mentored.