Rate My Professor Winifred Johnson

Winifred Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, having joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in August 2020. She earned her Ph.D. from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography. Johnson's research investigates the microbial cycling of dissolved organic matter and its contributions to the marine carbon cycle, alongside emerging contaminants in coastal aquatic environments. Through her Marine Biogeochemistry Lab, she applies mass spectrometry, metabolomics, and small molecule analyses to explore microbe-mediated chemical transformations in oceanic settings. An affiliate of UNCW's Center for Marine Science, she also serves on the university's shared governance committee representing Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2024 to 2026.

Johnson has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including Limnology and Oceanography, Science, Marine Chemistry, and Frontiers in Marine Science. Key publications encompass 'Evidence for quorum sensing and differential metabolite production by a marine bacterium in response to DMSP' (The ISME Journal, 2016), 'Environmental metabolomics: Analytical strategies' (Marine Chemistry, 2015), 'Extraction efficiency and quantification of dissolved metabolites in targeted marine metabolomics' (Limnology and Oceanography: Methods, 2017), 'Global ocean lipidomes show a universal relationship between temperature and lipid unsaturation' (Science, 2022), and 'Sponges With Microbial Symbionts Transform Dissolved Organic Matter in Flow-Through Coral Reef Mesocosms' (Frontiers in Marine Science, 2021). As Co-Principal Investigator, she has advanced projects such as NSF-funded studies on sponges altering seawater dissolved organic matter on Caribbean reefs and collaborative sea sponge research. Additionally, she contributed to the $1.5 million TEAL-SHIPS project under the North Carolina Research Opportunities Initiative, examining land-to-sea habitats through interdisciplinary expeditions. Her external funding achievements surpassing $1 million earned her place in UNCW's James F. Merritt Million Dollar Club.