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A truly outstanding professorPROFESSOR PETER JOHNSON IS AN accomplished person, and is rightfully proud of it. He was raised in Urbana, and went to school there. Both his parents being college professors, Johnson came from an academically oriented background.Johnson was a curious child, and liked to take appliances apart. He also attended schools in Wokingham, England, and Chantilly, France for a total of two years. He obtained his B.Sc. with Honors -in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1965, and earned his doctorate in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968, and continued his education there for a year as a post-doctoral student. Before Johnson started his career in Illinois Tech twenty-four years ago, he was an Assistant professor at the John Hopkins University in Maryland. He came to Illinois Tech primarily because he loved Chicago and the Illinois Tech campus, and because he would be close to his parents in Urbana. 
He made his debut in Illinois Tech as an Associate Professor of Chemistry, and since then has held numerous posts in the college. These include Director of the Educational Technology Center (ETC), now called the Academic Resource Center, Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Pre-college, Honors, and Minority programs, Vice President of the Armour Faculty Club, and at present, Professor of Chemistry in the BCPS Department. He taught freshman chemistry for a long time, but now teaches sophomore or= ganic chemistry. He is notoriously famous for his "explosive" demonstrations, being a pyrotechnics expert. He has forty-six publications to his credit. |
Johnson has been closely involved in the past with various projects for Illinois Tech as Director of the Summer Institutes on Computer Modeling in Mathematics and Science for Gifted Students in Chicago Public High Schools, Director of the National Science Foundation (NSFERH) Midwest Comprehensive Regional Center for Minorities (LRCM), Director of National Science Foundation (NSF [LSAMP]) Chicago Alliance for Minority Participation (ChAMP), Director of five Annual Undergraduate Research Conferences, and Director of Summer Institutes for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology (SMET) last year. He is also involved in many professional societies such as the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the Phi Lambda Upsilon Society, the Chicago Council for Post Secondary Education, the College Board Delegation, the Council of Colleges of Arts and Letters and the American Conference of Academic Deans. Apart from all these, he also makes time to advise and participate in the activities of various student organizations at Illinois Tech such as the Union Board, the Rock Climbing Club, the Skydiving Club, the Armour Ski Club, the Integral, and the Photo Club. He is also on the Board of Overseers for TechNews. He won the AMOCO Award for $xcellence in Teaching and Service, the Bauer Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen, the Student Organization Faculty Advisor Award, the Nationally Acclaimed Anderson Award for Quality, and has been recognized by TechNews' Millennium Project as one of the 100 most influential people in Illinois Tech's last 100 years. Johnson lives in a condominium on the lakefront, and likes to jog and bike along the lakefront. He takes pleasure in outdoor physical activity, and has enjoyed the thrills of canoeing, skiing, and skydiving. He is also an enthusiast of culturally rich activities, such as theater. He has a son,with whom he likes to go on fishing trips, and a daughter. His plans for the future include continuing his bridge program for minority students with an upcoming five million dollar grant, and his career as a professor of chemistry. Johnson likes the openness of the Illinois Tech campus, and admires the faculty and students for their unassuming natures and their dedication. He acknowledges that Illinois Tech has a disadvantage in being small and not having enough students to provide a "critical mass" for the organizations here. However, he also extols the advantages of being in a small school, such as not being alienated from the upper levels of administration and faculty, and interacting on a more personal level with them. He says the faculty members are open to sharing their interests, ,and draws attention to the sense of family among them. He would like more and more students to try to live on campus, and experience the "university experience." He commends the university as a place for students to find out more about themselves. He approves of the direction in which Illinois Tech is headed, and hopes to see even further progress in the university, as its student body grows and its academics expand. |
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