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My friend Ruth Francis, who has died aged 47 of cancer, spent a number of years as head of press communications at the scientific journal Nature, a role in which she expertly publicised breakthroughs in areas such as cloning and gene editing.

Having started out as a press officer at Cancer Research UK and then King’s College London, Ruth joined Nature in 2004 and remained there for eight years, after which she moved on to become head of communications at two other scientific publishers, BioMed Central and F1000, and then worked as a freelance until her death.

An energetic and creative science communicator, in all her work she built public trust in science by helping the media to report accurately and engagingly on new research. A leader in her field, she also chaired her industry body, Stempra, over two different periods (2011-14 and 2024-25).

Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Ruth was the daughter of Catherine (nee Willard), a primary school teacher, and John Francis, a bank manager. She grew up in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, then moved to Cuckfield, West Sussex, where she attended Warden Park secondary school and Varndean sixth form college in Brighton.

She lived in the south of France for a year before studying English literature at the University of Leeds, then joined the crew of a Russian tall ship, Mir, sailing from Canada to the Netherlands.

Ruth and I began our first jobs in the press office of the Cancer Research Campaign (now part of Cancer Research UK) on the same day in 2000. In her next role at King’s College London (2003-04) she worked on the announcement that researchers had extracted stem cells from human embryos and grown them in a British lab for the first time.

After her long spell at Nature she left to become head of communications at BioMed Central (2012-15) and then communications director of F1000 (2016-2018) before operating as a freelance, with clients including the Academy of Medical Sciences, Unesco and the British Antarctic Survey.

Outside work Ruth volunteered with a mobile library serving homeless people and was a trustee for a children’s centre. She also liked playing the drums, cycling, scuba diving, snowboarding and outdoor swimming.

In 2013 she met Greg Franklin, a project manager, and together they made their home in Elephant and Castle, south London, marrying in hospital shortly before her death.

She is survived by Greg, their two children, Phoebe and Milo, her father and her brothers, Peter and James.