My friend and colleague Michael Kenward, who has died aged 80, was the editor of New Scientist magazine from 1979 to 1990. A groundbreaking populariser of science at a time when many scientists were suspicious of the media, by the time he left the magazine, the concept of the public understanding of science was firmly embedded.
In 1979, the world of science communication was totally different from what it is now. New Scientist itself was considered distinguished and authoritative, but generally seen as the "house journal" of Britain's scientific community, despite changes introduced by Mike's predecessor, Bernard Dixon. Mike transformed it into a popular magazine and circulation soared, largely due to his determination to make every article comprehensible to the general public, coupled with his appreciation of the role of design and illustration.
Building on the foundations laid by Dixon, who brought in cartoonists such as Bill Tidy and David Austin, Mike ensured that New Scientist became noted for its illustrated covers (garnering industry prizes along the way, including one in 1987 from the British Society of Magazine Editors for "sustained excellence"). The magazine campaigned, too, for British science, seen as under threat during the Margaret Thatcher years.
"I've tried to get the media interested in science. Someone has to campaign for science to be treated as part of life," he said at the time of his departure.
Born in Brighton to Ronald Kenward, a toolmaker, and Phyllis (nee Ridley), Michael spent his early years in Lewes, East Sussex. He was still a young boy when his father brought the family to Bermondsey, south London, before leaving Phyllis to bring up Michael and his younger brother, Malcolm, on her own while also working in the finance department of Crosse & Blackwell. His secondary education was at Woolverstone Hall, a state-funded boarding school for underprivileged children.
He then went to the brand-new University of Sussex to study physics. Graduating in 1966, Mike spent three years as a fusion researcher at the Culham Laboratory (now Culham Centre for Fusion Energy) in Oxfordshire. A brief stint as an editor at the British Scientific Instrument Research Association led in 1969 to a job at New Scientist as assistant technology editor. Ten years later he became editor.
Mike hired me as chief subeditor in 1983. It was a bold move considering that New Scientist had never before had subeditors, chief or otherwise.
He became a founding member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, set up in 1985 jointly by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now simply the British Association), the Royal Institution and the Royal Society. In 1990 Mike was made OBE.
After leaving New Scientist, he went on to help numerous publications including the Sunday Times and the Science Business news service. For 20 years he served on the editorial board of the Royal Society of Engineering's quarterly journal, Ingenia.
Mike did his freelance work from his home in Staplefield, West Sussex, where he lived with his wife, Liz (nee Rice), a social worker, whom he married in 1969.
Liz and Malcolm survive him.