Paul Johnson is a geophysicist who studies both the formation of ocean crust at mid-ocean ridges and the processes of megathrust earthquake generation at subduction zone boundaries. He and his students and colleagues conduct extensive fieldwork in the Northeast Pacific using submersibles and Remotely Operated Vehicles on the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Cascadia Subduction Zone. During the course of his oceanographic expeditions, his laboratory has developed unique tools for sampling fluid and microbial biology within the igneous oceanic crust, and for measuring heat and fluid flux in extreme environments on the seafloor. He has taught the Oceanography Climate Change course for the last 19 years, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.