Sir Philip Henry Montgomery Campbell (born 19 April 1951) is a British astrophysicist. He served as editor-in-chief of the peer reviewed scientific journal Nature from 1995 to 2018. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the publishing company Springer Nature. Early life and education Campbell was born on 19 April 1951 and educated at Shrewsbury School. He went on to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Bristol, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in 1972. He then gained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in astrophysics at Queen Mary College, University of London before doing his PhD in upper atmospheric physics at the University of Leicester supervised by Tudor Jones while collaborating with the Royal Aircraft Establishment. His doctoral and postdoctoral research was on the physics of the ionized upper atmosphere and effects on radio propagation, using the latter as a probe of the lower ionosphere. Career Campbell began working at Nature in 1979 and was appointed physical sciences editor in 1982. After leaving the journal in 1988 to start the publication Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, he returned to Nature as Editor-in-Chief in 1995, succeeding John Maddox. In that role, he headed a team of about 90 editorial staff around the world. He took direct editorial responsibility for the content of Nature's editorials, writing some of them. He was the seventh editor-in-chief since the journal was launched in 1869. He was also editor-in-chief of Nature publications. In that role he was responsible for ensuring that the quality and integrity appropriate to the Nature name are maintained, for overseeing editorial policies, and for ensuring that appropriate individuals are appointed as chief editors of Nature journals. He was succeeded by Magdalena Skipper in his role as editor-in-chief in 2018. In the role of Editor-in-Chief of Springer Nature, Campbell is responsible for the oversight of editorial policies and standards across the company, for external engagement, and for stimulating new strands of content across the company's brands and across research disciplines. Campbell has worked on issues relating to science and its impacts in society with the Office of Science and Innovation in the UK, the European Commission and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. For ten years until 2012, he was a trustee of the charity Cancer Research UK and the chairman of the charity's Public Policy Advisory Group. He was a visiting scholar at Rockefeller University