Johnson was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Grace and Bishop Joseph A. Johnson Jr.[1] He attended Fisk University for his undergraduate studies, where he studied physics and graduated summa cum laude.[1] He moved to Yale University for his graduate studies, where he earned a master's in 1961 and PhD in 1965.[2] Johnson was the second African American to obtain a Ph.D. in physics from Yale.[3] His research considered plasma dynamics and the production of pions in antiproton-proton collisions.[4] He worked under the supervision of Henry Kraybill.[3] After graduating, Johnson worked at the Sikorsky Aircraft company and Bell Labs.[5]
Research and career
Johnson was made Herbert Kayser Professor of Science and Engineering at the City College of New York.[6] His research considered turbulence in plasmas and laser-induced fluorescence.[6] Johnson studied both fully turbulent collisional plasmas and magnetised turbulent plasmas.[6] He was eventually appointed distinguished professor of science and engineering at Florida A&M University, where he served as director of the Centre for Plasma Science.[7][8]
Throughout his career, Johnson looked to support minority scientists and engineers. He was involved with outreach and education programmes for minority students, and supervised several doctoral researchers. In the early 1970s he helped to arrange the first meeting of African-American physicists.[6] The meeting, which was hosted at Fisk University, honoured Donald Anderson Edwards, John Hunter and Halston Eagleson.[6] In 1977 Johnson was one of the founding members of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP). He helped to draft the constitution and went on to serve as President.[6] His legacy is recognised by the American Institute of Physics and NSBP, who, in 2021, established the Joseph A. Johnson III Award for Excellence.[9] In 1988 he worked with Abdus Salam to host a meeting for African and African-American physicists at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.[6] A direct outcome of the meeting was the formation of the Edward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute, which supports African doctoral researchers in attending graduate school in the United States.[6] In 2003 he helped to establish the African Laser Centre, a network of laser laboratories across Africa that provides fellowships for graduate students.[6]
^Johnson, Joseph Andrew III (1965). Pion Production and Elastic Scattering in Antiproton-Proton Collisions at 7 BEV/C (Thesis). New Haven, CT. OCLC702765769.
