Dr Johnson has been the Chief Executive Officer since April 2017. Dr Johnson is a geologist with over 35 years’ experience, including private sector mining and mineral exploration.

He has led teams of geoscientists for over 20 years with a number of diverse achievements. These range from discovery of over two million ounces of gold reserves in industry, to national scale pre-competitive geoscience programs that have attracted exploration investment to Australia.

Dr Johnson first joined Geoscience Australia in 2006 and in that time has been head of various divisions with diverse duties including carriage of energy and mineral programs. He has also been a member of the Board of the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) at the Australian National University since 2017, and a member of the Australian Antarctic Science Council since 2018. Dr Johnson is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.

Dr Johnson has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Geology from the University of Sydney and a PhD from the Australian National University. Dr Johnson’s vision for Geoscience Australia is one of deploying integrative geoscience for the economic, social and environmental benefit of Australians. He is driving a strong agenda of inclusiveness, is a member of the Champions of Change Coalition in STEM, has led Geoscience Australia towards Bronze accreditation in the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) initiative and is driving Geoscience Australia’s engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.