Astrophysicist John Johnson Leaving CalTech for Harvard

Johnson_JohnJohn A. Johnson, an assistant professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, has accepted a position as a full professor of astronomy with tenure at Harvard University. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on searching for exoplanets. He will begin his new teaching post this fall.

In a blog post explaining his decision to go to Harvard, Dr. Johnson stated, “There were myriad reasons for this change in my career path. At Caltech, over the 3.5 years that I’ve been there I’ve come to recognize a fundamental mismatch between what I value and what the institute values. This is not a statement about which side is right, per se. It’s just a statement of fact about the nature of different people’s values. . . .  Caltech is structured to be a lean, mean research machine. To be sure, I have benefited greatly from that structure on the research side of things. The downside is that their small size and elite status constricts their ability to prioritize diversity and makes it difficult to put a meaningful focus on education, especially on teaching innovation.” You can read his complete post here.

Dr. Johnson is a graduate of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley.

 

Related Articles

3 COMMENTS

  1. Dr. Johnson not only has a brilliant mind but the way he conveys information about the Universe is like listening to the most beautiful Symphony. Harvard is indeed lucky to have him. I can’t wait to read his book about Exoplanets and Red Dwarf Stars.

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Leadership Support for the Mental Health of Black Male Student Athletes

As a society, we celebrate the success of the most popular Black male student-athletes. Their success deserves our attention. Similarly, the Black male student-athletes who are not successful need our full attention as well.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Featured Jobs