Originally from Colorado, I received my Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in '79, '81 and '84, respectively. After a two year NATO post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pure and Applied Physics at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, I returned to the United States to take a post as an Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at CU.
I chose electrical engineering because my father, Robert Grey Johnson, and my grandfather, Charles Wood Johnson were electrical (electro-mechanical) engineers who worked all their lives for Westinghouse Corporation. My grandfather was an engineering assistant to George Westinghouse at the time of his premature death from pneumonia in 1926. In addition to my father and my mother, Kathleen, my family of two brothers and four sisters continues to be the biggest influence in my life. Their constant support, encouragement, and affection are my greatest joy. The second biggest influence has been the wonderful teachers who worked with me throughout my career. What I like most about engineering and applied science is making things work that haven't been tried before, or are considered to be "not possible". The largest challenge I faced pursuing a career in engineering was overcoming Hodgkin's disease in graduate school.
My short-term goal is to make ColorLink, Inc., a commercial success, thus completing the cross-disciplinary vision of our NSF/ERC: integration of materials and devices into systems, creating new industries and a workforce for the 21st century. My long-term goal is to return to academia to be a "really great professor". When I am not working on these goals, I enjoy riding horses, playing golf, skiing and "watching the hay grow" on my little farm outside of Boulder.
The most satisfying academic achievement is graduating seventeen Ph.Ds, eighteen Masters and thirteen undergraduate students. My most satisfying technical achievement is spinning off five start-up companies from my CU research laboratory. My students and postdoctoral fellows allowed me to be recognized as the first International Recipient of the Dennis Gabor Prize in 1993 which I received for Innovation and Creativity in Modern Optics by the Novofer Foundation.
To women thinking about a career in engineering: stay focused and committed. Never stop believing in yourself.
"To make a beginning is to make an end, to make and end is to make a beginning, the end is where we start from." T.S. Eliot.
Have fun and enjoy the human side of an engineering career.
