Only one individual is recognized annually for the award. Nominees must have spent most of their career in the nearctic region, which encompasses the United States and Canada, and have made significant contributions to the area of biological control. Johnson has established an international reputation for outstanding contributions to the fields of biological control and entomology in research, teaching, extension, and administration.
During the past three decades, he has advanced entomology by developing and implementing successful integrated pest management programs in several cropping systems. He has elucidated the relationships between economically important pests and their natural enemies, and used this information to enhance biological control, thereby improving pest control and reducing reliance on insecticides. He has also been a leading contributor to understanding and mitigating negative effects of pesticides on pest control, including pesticide resistance, pest resurgence, and secondary pest outbreaks. Much of his work has focused specifically on the integration of natural enemies into systems where heavy pesticide use is common such as vegetable crops.
To date, Johnson has published more than 240 publications. Of these, more than 155 were refereed publications including journal articles, book chapters, and review articles. Nearly 100 of his articles specifically deal with some aspect of natural enemy biology or ecology. His published works have been cited over 4,100 times in the scientific literature.
But Johnson’s impact on biological control extends far beyond the number of articles that he has published. He has served in a leadership role in several committees and organizations focused on coordinating and expanding the role of biological control. These include the Western Regional Committee on Biological Control; Customer Advisory Group, National Biological Control Institute; Experiment Station Committee on Policy — Biological Control Working Group; and the IOBC-NRS. He has served as an editor of the journal Biological Control – Theory and Application in Pest Management, and continues to serve on the journal’s editorial board. He has helped organize and coordinate several conferences on biological control.
His many awards and honors include being named a fellow of both the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the C. W. Woodworth Award from the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America and the Entomological Society of America Recognition Award for Contributions to Agriculture.
The Department of Entomology at UC Riverside is a world leader in the area of biological control. Several of its faculty members have been recognized via the IOBC-NRS Distinguished Scientist of the Year Award, including, most recently, Richard Stouthamer (2010), Robert F. Luck (2003), and James A. McMurtry (2001).
The International Organization for Biological Control was established in 1955 as a global organization affiliated to the International Council of Scientific Unions. Divided into six regional sections, the organization promotes environmentally safe methods of pest and disease control, and focuses on the use of natural enemies to control undesirable arthropod pests, noxious weeds, and other pestiferous organisms.