A.T. Charlie Johnson Named Rebecca W. Bushnell Professor of Physics and Astronomy

A.T. Charlie Johnson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been appointed the Rebecca W. Bushnell Professor of Physics and Astronomy. A condensed matter experimentalist, Professor Johnson’s research focuses on the physics of nanoscale materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. He is a leading expert on transport phenomena (energy, charge, and spin) in such systems.  

Johnson has served as Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center, a National Science Foundation-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, and was recently named as a member of the Defense Science Study Group. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society, and has been recognized for excellence in teaching and mentorship with the Provost’s Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Penn Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Research Mentorship.

The Penn Arts & Sciences Board of Overseers created this professorship in 2012 in recognition of Rebecca W. Bushnell, who was Dean of the School from 2005-2013. It was originally known as the School of Arts & Sciences Board of Overseers Professorship and was held by Bushnell from 2013 until her retirement in 2018, when it was renamed the Rebecca W. Bushnell Professorship and designated for the sciences to reflect her commitment to all academic disciplines. Bushnell joined the Penn Arts & Sciences faculty in the Department of English in 1982.