Richard T. Johnson (1931 - November 22, 2015) was a physician and scientist at the

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

. Johnson was a faculty member in the Department of Neurology since its inception in 1969 and was the former head of the department. His research into the effects of viruses on the

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...

has been published in over 300 scientific articles, and Johnson was both a journal and book editor and the author of an influential textbook, ''Viral Infections of the Nervous System.''

Education and training

Johnson, who was raised in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, received his undergraduate degree ''cum laude'' from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

in 1953. He remained in Colorado to earn his medical degree in 1956 at the

University of Colorado School of Medicine The University of Colorado School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Colorado system. It is located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, one of the four University of Colorado campuses, six mil ...

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe, Adams County, Colorado, Adams, and Douglas County, Colorado, Douglas List of counties in Colorado, counti ...

. He

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

in internal medicine at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. From 1957 to 1959, Johnson conducted research at the

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The institute is centered at the Forest Glen Annex, in the Forest Glen Park part of the u ...

, Department of Virus Diseases, in

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. Johnson completed his

residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

in neurology at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

. He conducted research at the

Institute of Advanced Studies The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

from 1962 to 1964.

Career

Johnson's first faculty appointment was as an assistant, then associate, professor of neurology at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

. In 1969, Johnson moved to the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, th ...

, accepting the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professorship of Neurology and founding a new Department of Neurology with Guy McKhann. Johnson was director of the department from 1988 until 1997 and remains a faculty member. He is also a professor of microbiology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private university, private research university primarily based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded as the Johns Hopkins ...

. Johnson has been a visiting professor at universities in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Johnson was on the staff of the

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

and until 1997 was Neurologist-in Chief at the

. He was certified by the

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc. (ABPN) is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1934 following conferences of committees appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Neurological Association, and the t ...

in 1966. In 1997, Johnson became the founding director of the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore, which he directed until 2000. He also assumed editorship of the ''Annals of Neurology.'' Johnson's monograph ''Viral Infections of the Nervous System'' was published in 1982. A second edition followed in 1998. During his career, Johnson had supervised the post-doctoral training of many notable scientists, including

Janice E. Clements Janice Ellen Clements is vice dean for faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Mary Wallace Stanton Professor of Faculty Affairs.Diane Griffin, and Opendra "Bill" Narayan.

Death

Johnson died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

on November 22, 2015, at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Research

Throughout his career, Johnson had contributed to understanding of infections of the central nervous system.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies

Johnson met D. Carleton Gajdusek, 1976 Nobel Prize winner for his work on

transmissible spongiform encephalopathies Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), also known as prion diseases, are a group of progressive, incurable, and fatal conditions that are associated with the prion hypothesis and affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, in ...

(TSEs, or prion diseases), while working at Walter Reed in the 1950s. In 1964, Johnson himself observed a case of Kuru, a prion disease, in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. When Johnson became a professor at Johns Hopkins, his lab held joint lab meetings with Gajdusek's lab. Johnson helped to examine the first chimpanzee to show signs of Kuru after Gajdusek experimentally inoculated it with brain matter from a human victim. Johnson later chaired a US Institute of Medicine committee on TSEs. The committee released a report in 2004, stressing the need for further and expanded research into prion diseases

Honors and awards

Johnson's honors and awards include: * The Ford Award for clinical teaching at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (twice) * The

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of ...

(Germany) * The Gordon Wilson Medal from the

American Clinical and Climatological Association The American Clinical and Climatological Association (ACCA) is a society for the study of climatology, balneology, and the diseases of the respiratory and circulatory organs. It is composed of physicians residing in the United States and Canada. It ...

* The Jean Martin Charcot Award from the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies * The Smadel Medal from the

Infectious Disease Society of America The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is a medical association representing physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. It was founded in 1963 and is based in Arlington, Virginia. ...

* The first Multiple Sclerosis Society Medal from the

Association of British Neurologists Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

* The Florence Rena Sabin Award from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center * The first Victor and Clara Soriano Award from the

World Federation of Neurology World Federation of Neurology (WFN) was formed in Brussels, Belgium, in 1957, as an association of national neurological societies. It is a UK registered charity with a mission to foster quality neurology and brain health worldwide through promo ...

* The Order of Hipolito Unanue conferred by the President and the Minister of Health of

* The first Pioneer of Neurovirology AwardJohnson Pioneer page
on the website for the International Society for NeuroVirology from the International Society for NeuroVirology (awarded at the 2nd International Symposium on NeuroVirology on June 6, 1999, in New London, New Hampshire, USA) * Elected to the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

(1987) * Distinguished Service Professor of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2001) * Honorary Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

in London (2003) * The state-of-the-art lecture at the Liverpool Neurological Infectious Diseases Course established in 2007 is named after him

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Richard T 2015 deaths Year of birth missing American neurologists Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Colorado Boulder alumni University of Colorado School of Medicine alumni Harvard Medical School people Case Western Reserve University faculty Johns Hopkins Hospital physicians Members of the National Academy of Medicine