Background
Johnson, Kirk was born on October 26, 1960 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States.
Johnson, Kirk was born on October 26, 1960 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States.
He attended Amherst College as an undergraduate, where he received a bachelor’s degree in geology and fine arts He then attended the University of Pennsylvania, earning a master’s degree in geology and paleobotany. He received his Doctor of Philosophy in geology and paleobotany from Yale University in 1989.
Mr. Johnson is the host of the Public Broadcasting Service Nova series, "Making North America", which is a three-part series that describes the shaping of North America, which aired on November 4, 11 and 18, 2015. While in graduate school, in 1987, he discovered an extinct species of linden leaf, which was named Tilia johnsoni in his honor. His postdoctoral work included field research in the northern Australian rainforests, while he served as a postdoctoral research associate in the department of botany at the University of Adelaide.
From 1991 to 2012, Johnson worked at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, first as a lead scientist, then the chief curator and vice president of research and collections.
In 2010, he led a nine-month excavation of thousands of Ice Age animal bones, including mammoths and mastodons, in Snowmass Village, Colorado. In 2012 he was selected to lead the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, District of Columbia, one of the Smithsonian Institution’s most popular museums on the National Mall.
(The story of the monumental find of high-elevation Ice Ag...)
(An updated edition of the award-winning primer on the evo...)
( In October 2010, a bulldozer operator working at the ba...)
(A look at how the geology, environment, and landscape of ...)
(This is the story of the animals and plants that populate...)
(Will be dispatched from UK. Brand new copy.)
Board of directors St. Frances College, Fort Wayne, since 1993. Member Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Fort Wayne, since 1983. Member American Federation for Horticulturists, United States Triathlon Federation, Indiana Order Odd Fellows, Lions, Kappa Lambda Theta, Kappa Delta Pi.