• Clifford V. Johnson, Ph.D.

  Professor of Physics

Profession:

Professor of Physics

Education

• BSc, Imperial College, London University
• Ph.D, Southampton University, Physics

A professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Southern California, Clifford Johnson is part of the international effort to understand and explain the origins of the universe. In 2005, Johnson was awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for his contribution to "string theory, quantum gravity and its interface with strongly coupled field theory."

What first inspired your love of science?

So many things got me into science at various points and kept pushing me in that direction. But right at the very beginning, it always came down to curiosity. It came down to asking questions and really trying to figure out how stuff worked. I would take things apart and rebuild them. People would throw away stuff that they thought wasn't working anymore and I would take it apart and fix it. Just going into things and trying to figure out how they worked really got me more into asking questions about everything. Ultimately, it meant that I was asking questions about the universe and, "How does the universe work?"

Who encouraged you to pursue a career in physics?

There wasn't necessarily one specific person who helped guide me on the way -- there were several people . . . What all these people had in common were they allowed me to just continue asking questions, to enable things to happen - basically, standing out of my way so that I could ask questions and explore things. "Standing in your way" is largely what tends to shut down a lot of people when they're trying to get into science. "You're not allowed to ask that question" or "you can't do that because you'll break it." A lot of that really was not around at crucial stages for me. A lot of people allowed things to happen and just let me ask those questions.

How would you encourage a student to become a physicist?

First and foremost, of course, study hard! What else? Don't just accept what has been given to you in the textbook at school . . . Ask questions and explore more. Go and find out more stuff on your own. The web is out there now. If I had the web when I was a kid, it would have been just amazing because you can go out there and meet real scientists on the web through blogs and other portals and find out more information on all sorts of things! There's all kinds of encyclopedias and projects out there giving more information. If you put that all together, then you can really enhance what you're learning in the classroom.

Interview

Don't just accept what has been given to you in the textbook at school. Ask questions and explore more.

Clifford V. Johnson, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics

Web Resources

• Clifford Johnson's Website
• Asymptotia - Clifford Johnson's Blog
• University of Southern California - Physics and Astronomy Department
• Wired Science - Clifford Johnson's Blog
• Science Hero: Clifford Johnson
• Daily Trojan Article - "Making His Name Known in Academia"
• Clifford Johnson's African Summer Theory Institute