An Editor With Punch

Abstract

John Maddox, who captained Nature into the modern era with two transformative stints as editor, died on 12 April at the age of 83. Maddox was born in Wales on 27 November 1925. After studying physics and chemistry, he taught theoretical physics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He went on to work as a science correspondent for The Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian ) from 1955 to 1964. Maddox brought his journalistic instincts with him when he joined Nature as its editor in 1966. He had manuscripts edited to make them more punchy and put in place a stringent peer-review system. Nature also became known for Maddox's animated and sometimes controversial editorials, and the journal grew to be a platform for opinionated and incisive science journalism. In 1973, he stepped down to start his own publishing company, resuming editorship of the journal in 1980. After his resignation in 1995, he was knighted for his services to science. “He was most engaging, a real polymath,” says Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society. “He exemplified [how] a generalist and a man of culture can contribute a great deal to the stimulus of the scientific community.”