David W. Johnson is an associate professor and chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Dayton. His teaching has included analytical, general, and environmental chemistry, as well as courses in the premedical program; he also mentors first-year students and advises majors. Recently, he led the renovation and furnishing of the University's state-of-the-art chemical instrumentation laboratory, now named the Brother John J. Lucier, S.M., Chemical Instrumentation Center.

He spends much of his research time at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base working with government scientists within the field of lubricants. His research interests include analysis of trace metals in perfluorinated lubricants using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy; determination of true molecular weight distributions in perfluoropolyalkylether-based lubricants using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry; and determination of additive concentration and depletion mechanisms by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.