Magdalena Skipper is a British

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

and the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

''. She previously served as an editor of ''

Nature Reviews Genetics ''Nature Reviews Genetics'' is a monthly review journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in 2000 and covers the full breadth of modern genetics. The editor-in-chief is Linda Koch. The journal publishes review and perspective arti ...

'' and the open access journal ''

Nature Communications ''Nature Communications'' is a peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio since 2010. It is a multidisciplinary journal and it covers the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, earth sciences, medici ...

''.

Education

Skipper obtained a bachelor's degree in genetics at the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

.Magda Skipper's She completed her PhD in 1998 at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, where she worked in Jonathan Hodgkin's lab investigating sex-determination systems in the nematode worm '' Caenorhabditis elegans''. She is a member of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Career and research

After completing her PhD she joined the Medical Research Council (MRC)

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(LMB) at the

. She briefly worked as a

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at the

Imperial Cancer Research Fund Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

, working on the notch signaling pathway of

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family (Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ca ...

in gut development. Skipper joined ''

'' in 2001 as an associate editor for ''

''. During her editorship she interviewed several high-profile scientists including Anne McLaren,

Mario Capecchi Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 6 October 1937) is an Italian-born molecular geneticist and a co-awardee of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method to create mice in which a specific gene is turned off, known as knock ...

and

Oliver Smithies Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Cape ...

. In 2002 she was appointed chief editor of ''

'', and was promoted to associate publisher in 2008. She serves on the advisory board of the Centre for Personalised Medicine at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Skipper worked briefly as Director for Scientific Communications at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle. In 2018 she worked with ''Nature'' and Estée Lauder Companies to launch a global award for women in science. She became the first woman editor-in-chief of ''

'' in its 150-year history in May 2018, when she succeeded Philip Campbell. She has stated that she intends to ensure that science is

reproducible Reproducibility, also known as replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or in a ...

and robust, as well as doing more to support early-career researchers.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Skipper, Magdalena British geneticists Alumni of the University of Cambridge Living people British editors British women editors Alumni of the University of Nottingham British women geneticists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century British journalists 21st-century British biologists 21st-century British women scientists Nature (journal) editors