George B. Johnson

American journalist

Dr George B. Johnson (born 11 June 1942, in Newport News, Virginia) is a science educator who for many years has written a weekly column "On Science" in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. 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.

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

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 Aarhus University, 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, St. Louis Zoo. Since 2004 he has continued at Washington University as professor emeritus of biology.

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.