Joseph Johnson III

Born on 26 May 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee, Joseph Johnson III was a plasma physicist and charter fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP). Johnson became the second African American to earn a PhD in physics from Yale University when he received his doctorate in 1965. Over his career, he held a number of positions, including researcher at Bell Labs and faculty appointments at Yale, Southern University, Rutgers University, City College of New York, and finally Florida A&M University, where he was a distinguished professor of science and engineering and professor of physics. At Florida A&M, he also served as director of the Center for Plasma Science and Technology. Johnson’s research centered on fluids, plasma, and turbulence. He developed new experimental techniques and tools for the study of a variety of fluid and plasma phenomena, including high-speed flow and the amplification of perturbations at contact surfaces. He also became known for his mentoring of minority physics students. Besides helping to convene the first meeting of African American physicists, which led to the establishment of the NSBP, he also helped organize other gatherings to promote collaborations among African and African American scientists, such as the 1988 meeting at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste. Johnson was a fellow of the American Physical Society, an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an elected member of the Third World Academy of Sciences. In 2016 he was honored with the Bouchet Leadership Award Medal. He died in 2017 at age 77. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection)

Date in History: 26 May 1940