Science and Technology → Regional Climate Change

Dr. Johnson was a Visiting Scientist with The Universities Space Research Association from 1987 to 1992 and conducted research on space and global environmental issues.

Dr. Johnson was Assistant Director for Space Science and Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from November 1983 to October 1987. He was Acting Science Advisor to President Reagan and Acting Director of OSTP from May to October 1986.

Dr. Johnson received his B.S. degree from Antioch College in 1951 and his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Indiana University in 1956. That same year, he joined the Lockheed Missiles and Space Research Laboratory of the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, where for 27 years he conducted a broad range of research in low energy nuclear physics and in the space sciences. He was Manager of the Space Sciences Laboratory for ten years and Senior Science Advisor to the Director of Research for five years. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Bern in 1980.

Dr. Johnson has been active in both national and international professional societies and had served on many NASA, ONR, DARPA, and DNA committees, panels, and study groups. He is co-discoverer of energetic helium and oxygen ions in the earth’s radiation belts and has authored over 60 papers on auroras and radiation belt phenomena. He was twice invited speaker at Nobel symposia on space plasma physics and in 1983 was editor of a book on the composition of energetic ions in the Earth’s magnetosphere. He received the 1986 Space Sciences Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for research “culminating in the discovery of large fluxes of energetic oxygen ions in the magnetosphere, thereby showing that the ionosphere is a major source of space plasmas.” He was a member of the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Academy of Sciences, 1988–1990, and Vice-chairman of the White House Committee on Earth Sciences from 1987–1990.



EDUCATION

B.S., Physics, Antioch College, 1951
M.S., Physics, Indiana University, 1953
Ph.D., Physics, Indiana University, 1956



EXPERIENCE

1995 to 2009 Consult only with non-profit organizations. Chairman, AMTEC (1990–1997); Chairman, BASIC (2003-present); Member BASIC (1993-present), EOGEO, SVEP, Trees America.

1993 to 1995 Aspen Global Change Institute. Senior Research Associate conducting research on global environmental issues.

1987 to 1992 University Space Research Association. Visiting Scientist conducting research and strategic planning on global environmental problems and issues. March 1987 to January 1990 served as Vice-chairman of the White House FCCSET Committee on Earth Sciences.

1983 to 1987 U.S. Government. Assistant Director for Space Science and Technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President.

May to Oct. 1986 U.S. Government. Acting Science Advisor to the President and Acting Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

1956 to 1983 Lockheed Missiles & Space Company. Senior Science Advisor to the Director of Research (1979-83). Manager, Space Sciences Laboratory (40-70 people, 1968-78). Conducted space and nuclear research (1956-83).

1953 to 1956 Indiana University. Research Associate in experimental nuclear physics.

1951 to 1953 Indiana University. Teaching Assistant (one-quarter time).

1950 to 1951 Antioch College. Lab Assistant (half-time).

1947 to 1950 Armco Steel Corporation. Time Study Engineer (half-time).



PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP

American Geophysical Union, 1963 to present.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Associate Fellow, 1969-70.



AWARDS, HONORS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Consultant, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1987 to 1993

Member, Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Academy of Sciences, 1987 to 1990.



General

Chairman/Convener, AAS Symposium on Global Environmental Change: The Role of Space in Understanding Earth, Washington, D.C., February, 1989.

Vice-Chairman (Originator), Committee on Earth Sciences, OSTP Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, Executive Office of the President, 1987-90.

Keynote Speaker, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Philadelphia, Penn., May, 1986.

Chairman, Office of Science and Technology Policy Committee for the Review of the Report of the President’s National Commission on Space, Executive Office of the President, 1986.

Member, U.S. Delegation to develop with the U.S.S.R. Delegation a joint space agreement, 1986 (Implemented, 1987).

Chairman, Interagency Committee for Solar-Terrestrial Research, OSTP Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, Executive Office of the President, 1984-89.

Chairman, Space-Related Earth Science Review Committee, OSTP Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, Executive Office of the President, 1984-85.

Head, U.S. Delegation to the People Republic of China to develop a new Joint U.S./P.R.C. Space Research Program, October, 1984 (Implemented 1986).

Recipient, 1986 Space Science Award, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; the Award was “for originating and conducting a series of plasma composition experiment culminating in the discovery of large fluxes of energetic oxygen ions in the magnetosphere thereby showing that the ionosphere is a major source of space plasmas.”

Planner, Contributor and Technical Editor, Energetic Ion Composition in the Earth’s Magnetosphere, D. Reidel and TERRAPUB, 1983.

Invited Speaker, 54th Nobel Symposium, Problems in High Latitude Magnetospheric/Ionospheric Plasma Physics, 1982.

Convener/Chairman, Symposium on the Role of Ion Composition in Understanding Magnetospheric Processes, Fourth General Scientific Assembly of IAGA, 1981.

Visiting Professor, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 1980.

Chairman, Working Group on the Composition of the Hot Plasmas in the Earth’s Magnetosphere, International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 1978-83.

NASA Group Achievement Award, ISEE Ion Composition Experiment, 1979.

Invited Speaker, Gordon Conference on Particle Acceleration and Radiation in Plasmas, 1979.

Chairman, Polar Satellites Committee, NASA Science Definition Working Group on the Origin of Plasmas in the Earth’s Neighborhood (OPEN), 1978-79.

Chairman, Hot Plasma Committee, NASA-Coordinated Data Analysis Workshop II, International Magnetospheric Study, 1978-79.

Invited Speaker, 30th Nobel Symposium, Physics of the Hot Plasma in the Magnetosphere, 1975.

Member, NASA Planning Committee, Plasma Physics and Environmental Perturbation Laboratory, 1972-73.

Chairman Convener, AIAA/AAS Joint Conference on Observation and Prediction of Solar Activity, 1970.

Chairman, Technical Committee on Space and Atmospheric Physics, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1969-70.

Invited Speaker, Symposium on the Absolute Determination of Neutron Flux in the Energy Range 1-100keV, European-American Nuclear Data Committee Meeting, Oxford, England, 1963.



PUBLICATIONS

“Evidence for a 0+ First Excited State in Zr90,” with E.O. Johnson and L.M.Langer, Phys. Rev., Vol. 98, 1955, p. 1517.

“The Beta Spectrum of C136,” with E.O. Johnson and L.M. Langer, Phys. Rev., Vol. 102, 1956, p. 1146.

“Radiation Measurements to 1500-Kilometers Altitude at Equatorial Latitudes,” with F.E. Holly and L. Allen, J. Geophys Res. Vol. 66, 1961, p. 1627.


(Plus 85 other nuclear and space-related publications).

Passion

Interest

Knowledge

Reliability