Dr George B. Johnson (born 11 June 1942,Dr. George Johnson's CV (1998-2015). Retrieved September, 2015, from: http://biologywriter.com/ in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

) is a science educator who for many years has written a weekly column "On Science" in the ''

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''. For over 30 years he was a biology professor at Washington University and a genetics professor at Washington University School of Medicine. He has authored 44 scientific papers and ten high school and college biology texts. Over 3 million students have learned biology from these texts.

Education

Johnson got his B.A. in English from Dartmouth College in 1964, and his M.A. in biology, also at Dartmouth College in 1966. He was granted his Ph.D. in population biology from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1972, his thesis being on genetic variation in alpine butterflies.

Academic career

Johnson was hired as an assistant professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis in 1972. He was a visiting research fellow at Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Plant Biology, Stanford, California, 1975-1976. He was promoted to associate professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis and also associate professor of genetics at their School of Medicine in 1976. He served as visiting lector, Genetisk Institute at

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, Aarhus, Denmark, in 1977. In 1980 he was promoted to professor of biology at Washington University, a position he held until his retirement in 2004. He was also professor of genetics at the School of Medicine from 1981 to 2004. During the years 1987 to 1990 he served as founding director of The Living World education center,

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. Since 2004 he has continued at Washington University as professor emeritus of biology.

Writings

Research publications

* Wild type and mutant stocks of '' Aspergillus nidulans'', (with R.W. Barratt and W.N. Ogata), 1965, ''Genetics'' 52: 233-234 * Purification and characterization of glutamic acid dehydrogenase from ''Escherichia coli'' strain K-12. Master's thesis, Dartmouth College, 1966 * Analysis of enzyme variation in natural populations of the butterfly ''

Colias eurytheme ''Colias eurytheme'', the orange sulphur, also known as the alfalfa butterfly and in its larval stage as the alfalfa caterpillar, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae, where it belongs to the lowland group of " clouded yellows and sulphurs" sub ...

'', 1971, ''Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA'' 68: 997-1001 * The relationship of enzyme

polymorphism Polymorphism, polymorphic, polymorph, polymorphous, or polymorphy may refer to: Computing * Polymorphism (computer science), the ability in programming to present the same programming interface for differing underlying forms * Ad hoc polymorphis ...

metabolic Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...

function, 1971, ''Nature'' 232: 347-348 * The selective significance of biochemical

in ''Colias'' butterflies, Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1972 * Enzyme polymorphisms: Evidence that they are not selectively neutral, 1972, ''Nature New Biology'' 237: 170-171 * The relationship of enzyme polymorphism to species diversity, 1973, ''Nature'' 242: 193-194 * Enzyme polymorphism and biosystematics: The hypothesis of selective neutrality, 1973, ''Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics'', 4: 93-116 * The importance of substrate variability to enzyme polymorphism, 1973, ''Nature New Biology'' 243: 1 51-153 * On the hypothesis that polymorphic enzyme alleles are selectively neutral. I. The evenness of allele frequency distribution, (with M.W. Feldman), 1973, ''Theor. Pop. Biol.'' 4: 209-221 * Enzyme polymorphism and metabolism, 1974, ''Science'' 184: 28-37 * On the estimation of effective number of alleles from electrophoretic data, 1974, ''Genetics'' 78: 771-776 * Studying genetic variation in human populations, 1974, ''Jour. Heredity'' 65: 260-261 * The use of internal standards in electrophoretic surveys of enzyme polymorphism, 1975, ''Biochemical Genetics'' 13: 833-847 * Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation, 1975, Stadler Genetics Symposium 7: 91-116 * Mechanisms of evolution and speciation, 1975, In ''Life: The Individual and the Species'' (T. Lane, Ed.). Mosby Publishing Company, St. Louis, Missouri. * Polymorphism and predictability at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in ''Colias'' butterflies: Gradients in allele frequencies within a single population, 1976, ''Biochemical Genetics'' 14: 403-426 * Genetic polymorphism and enzyme function, 1976, In ''The Molecular Study of Biological Evolution'', Chapter 3, pp. 46–59 (F. Ayala, Ed.), Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts. * Hidden alleles at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in ''Colias'' butterflies, 1976, ''Genetics'' 83: 149-167 * Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation in Alpine butterflies, 1976, In Evolution Within Populations, ''Ann. Mo. Bot. Garden'' 63: 248-261 * Enzyme polymorphism in the butterfly ''Colias'': Selection on metabolic phenotypes, 1976, ''Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook'' 75: 440- 449 * Characterization of electrophoretically hidden variation in the butterfly ''Colias'', 1976, ''Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook'' 75: 449-456 * Factors altering the gel sieving behavior of proteins: The effect of deuterium oxide, 1976, ''Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook'' 75: 456-459 * Evaluation of the stepwise mutation model of electrophoretic mobility: Comparison of the gel sieving behavior of alleles at the esterase-5 locus of ''Drosophila pseudoobscura'', 1977, ''Genetics'' 87: 139–157. Abstract: ''Genetics'' 83: s36 (1976) * Characterization of electrophoretically cryptic variation in the alpine butterfly ''Colias'' meadii, 1977, ''Biochemical Genetics'' 15: 665-693 * Hidden heterogeneity among electrophoretic alleles, 1977, In ''Measuring Selection in Natural Populations'' (F. Christiansen, T. Fenchel, Eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin: 223-244 * Assessing electrophoretic similarity: The problem of hidden heterogeneity, 1977, ''Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics'', Vol. 8: 309-328 * Isozymes, allozymes, and enzyme polymorphism: Structural constraints on polymorphic variation, 1978, Isozymes: ''Current Topics in Biological and Medical Research'', Vol. 2: 1-21 * Enzyme polymorphism: Metabolic considerations, 1978, ''Metabolic Therapy'', 7: l-4 * Structural flexibility of isozyme variants: Genetic variants in '' Drosophila'' disguised by cofactor and subunit binding, 1978, ''Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA'' 75: 395–399. Abstract: ''Genetics'' 86: s33, (1977) * Genetically controlled variation in conformation of enzymes, 1979, ''Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Molec. Biol.'' 22: 293-326 * Genetic variation in the physiological phenotype, 1979, In ''Population Biology of Plants'' (O. Solbrig, S. Jain, G. Johnson & P. Raven, Eds.), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y.: p. 62-83 * Genetic polymorphism at enzyme loci, 1979, In ''Physiological Genetics'' (J. Scandalios, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y.: 239-273 * Post-translational modification as a potential explanation of high levels of enzyme polymorphism (with V. Finnerty), 1979, ''Genetics'' 91: 695-722 * Gene expression in ''Drosophila'': Characterization of the enzymes produced by certain complementary maroon-like heterozygotes (with V. Finnerty, and M. McCarron), 1979, ''Molec. Gen. Genet.'', 172: 37-43 * The genetics of electrophoretic variation: a response (with V. Finnerty), 1979, ''Genetics'' 92: 357-360 * Increasing the resolution of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis by varying the degree of gel cross-linking, 1979, ''Biochemical Genetics'' 7: 499-5l6 * Unvermutete Genetische Variation an Enzymorten (with V. Loeschcke), 1979, ''Biologisches Zentralblatt'', 98: 163-173 * Structural vs. post-translational components of genic variation (with V. Finnerty), 1979, ''Genetics'' 92: 683-684 * ''Population Biology of Plants'', 1980, Editor (with O. Solbrig, S. Jain & P. Raven), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y. * Polyploidy, plants, and electrophoresis (with B. Carr), 1980. In ''Polyploidy'' (W. Lewis, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y. * Post-translational modification of xanthine dehydrogenase in natural populations of '' Drosophila melanogaster'' (with D. Hartl and V. Finnerty). 1981. ''Genetics'' 98: 817-831 * Gel sieving electrophoresis: A description of procedures and analysis. In ''Methods of Biochemical Analysis'' (D. Glick, Ed.), 1983, Interscience Publishers, New York. * Phylogenetic Implications of Ribosomal DNA Restriction Site Variation in the Plant Family Onagraceae (with J. Crisci, E. Zimmer, P. Hoch, C. Mudd and N. Pan), 1990, ''Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard'' 77: 523-538

Texts

* ''Biology'' (with P. Raven and latest edition with Ken Mason and Jonathan Losos and Susan Singer), 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. * ''Understanding Biology'' (with P. Raven), 1988, 1991, 1995. Wm. C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. * Environment (with P. Raven and L. Berg) 1993. Saunders Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. * ''Biology Visualizing Life''. 1993, 1997. Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas. * ''Human Biology: Concepts and Issues'', 1994. W.C. Brown Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa. * ''Biology: Principles and Explorations'', 1995, 2000 (with P. Raven). Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas. * ''How Scientists Think: Key Experiments in Genetics'', 1995. W.C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. * ''The Living World'', 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. * ''Essentials of the Living World'', 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2020 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. * ''Understanding Biology'' (with Ken Mason) 2015, 2018. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.

References

External links

George B. Johnson's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, George B. American geneticists American science writers Dartmouth College alumni People from Newport News, Virginia Science teachers Stanford University alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty St. Louis Post-Dispatch people Saint Louis Zoo people 1942 births Living people Journalists from Virginia Scientists from Virginia Washington University School of Medicine faculty Academic staff of Aarhus University