Scripps Analysis professor emeritus John Johnson, PhD, has been elected to the Nationwide Academy of Sciences—one of many highest honors given to scientists. Based on the Academy, members are chosen “in recognition of their distinguished and persevering with achievements in authentic analysis.”
“Changing into a member of the Academy is a good honor for me and the 70 graduate college students and publish docs which have labored in my lab since 1978, in addition to quite a few collaborators at Scripps and around the globe,” says Johnson, who can also be the Eldon R. Strahm Professor of Structural Virology within the Division of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology.
The group shares my dedication to serving to the world by means of science.”
John Johnson, PhD, professor emeritus, Scripps Analysis
Johnson earned his doctorate in bodily and inorganic chemistry from Iowa State College in 1972 and spent 23 years at Purdue College earlier than transferring to The Scripps Analysis Institute (now often known as Scripps Analysis) in 1995. His lab investigates a spread of viruses—together with people who infect micro organism, bugs and crops—and he has revealed a number of associated research. A lot of his work used X-ray crystallography and, extra just lately, electron cryomicroscopy to resolve the constructions of intact advanced virus particles.
Throughout his tenure, Johnson revealed the primary stories of icosahedral virus particles as constructing blocks for natural chemistry, bridging the sphere of chemistry with biology. And whereas combining chemistry with molecular genetics, he discovered a option to connect a spread of molecules to the floor of a virus, thereby imbuing the virus with the properties of these molecules. This methodology is relevant to a number of scientific fields, together with supplies science, drugs and molecular electronics. It may be used to immobilize massive molecules—and even entire proteins—on the floor of a virus. Much more, the method was utilized to construct a circuit on the floor of a virus using chemical “nanowires.” His lab additionally generated the primary atomic fashions of an insect virus, a dsDNA bacteriophage and an archaeal virus that lives within the sizzling springs of Yellowstone Nationwide Park.
For his contributions to science, Johnson has been awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award by the American Chemical Society-San Diego. Johnson additionally served as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Nationwide Most cancers Institute in addition to the Nationwide Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Pores and skin Ailments, and on the council of the Nationwide Institute of Basic Medical Sciences As well as, he served on the editorial boards of a number of peer-reviewed journals, together with the Journal of Basic Virology, the Journal of Molecular Biology, the Journal of Molecular Recognition, Construction and Virology.
Established by an Act of Congress that was signed into regulation by President Abraham Lincoln, the Nationwide Academy of Sciences has been in existence since 1863. As advisors to the nation, Academy members are required to supply scientific steerage to any US authorities physique “each time referred to as upon.”
With the election of Johnson, Scripps Analysis school now maintain 30 memberships within the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Medication and Engineering.
