IGSP Faculty

The Johnson Lab broadly studies the abundance, diversity and activity of marine microbes. We are biological oceanographers, marine molecular ecologists, marine microbiologists and biogeochemists. Our research focuses on the marine cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus, the most abundant phytoplankton in the open oceans and an excellent model marine microbe. Among the many techniques that we use in our laboratory, molecular and genomic tools are among the most common for open ocean sampling because they allow us to distinguish among morphologically similar microbes. They of course provide unique insight into the abundance, diversity and activity of marine microbes including Prochlorococccus. We are at the Marine Laboratory as part of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

My BS is in Civil Engineering from MIT. My PhD is from Duke in Botany. My Postdoc was at MIT studying molecular oceanography including genome analyses and environmental molecular diversity. I teach Ocean Ecosystem Analysis in the Fall and Marine Molecular Ecology in the Spring.

Learn more about Dr. Johnson's research in GenomeLIFE

Recent Publications