Leonard R. Johnson, Ph.D.

Vice Chancellor for Research

No stranger to the workings of research or the Health Science Center, Dr. Johnson came to UTHSC in 1989 to chair the Department of Physiology and serve as the Thomas A. Gerwin Professor in that department. Prior to these positions, Dr. Johnson was a professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He also served as an associate and assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Oklahoma Medical School. Dr. Johnson began his academic career as an instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles, after he earned a doctorate in physiology from the University of Michigan.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Johnson has garnered numerous honors and awards. He is a two-time winner of the National Institutes of Health Merit Award and holds an honary M.D. from the University of Cracow. Most recently Dr. Johnson was honored as the John H. Walsh Memorial Lecturer at the UCLA College of Medicine. With over 225 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Johnson continues to produce groundbreaking research. He currently is the principal investigator of two NIH funded projects and is a co-investigator for two additional NIH research studies.

Dr. Johnson led the UTHSC Department of Physiology for 16 years until he stepped down from the chair position in the fall of 2005 to assume the role of Vice Chancellor for Research. Since this time, Dr. Johnson has initiated the organization of our regulatory and compliance efforts under a single office, reorganized campus research support services, and supported the development of the Clinical Translational Science Institute and the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. The success of these efforts is paramount to moving our research enterprise into a productive and expanding future.

Contact Us

Leonard R. Johnson, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Research
62 South Dunlap
Suite 400
Memphis, TN 38163

Phone: (901) 448-7125
Fax: (901) 448-7133
Email: research@uthsc.edu