Lewis Johnson, Ph.D., is a physicist and senior academic administrator with over two decades of experience in scaling institutional research enterprises and driving student success. He most recently served as the associate provost for strategic initiatives at Florida A&M University (FAMU), where he led a $10M+ portfolio dedicated to elevating national rankings, research productivity and graduation metrics.
Johnson graduated Magna Cum Laude from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Physics, then earned his Ph.D. from Duke University. His doctoral research in the Free Electron Laser Laboratory was conducted under the mentorship of the late John M. J. Madey. Prior to his tenure at FAMU, Johnson served as a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source, where he specialized in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and X-ray microscopy. This foundational expertise in synchrotron radiation informs his current research focus on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), specifically investigating fundamental laser-matter interactions and their applications in environmental and hazardous-material detection.
Johnson has secured and managed over $30 million in external funding as a Principal Investigator from agencies including the NSF, NNSA, DoD and USDA. He co-founded the Center for Plasma Science and Technology (CePaST), a $4M, 30,000-sq.-ft. multidisciplinary facility that has since generated over $40M in research funding. He also created the Laser Remote Sensing Laboratory, a unique resource among HBCUs valued at over $3M. His scholarly contributions include over 50 co-authored papers and the successful mentorship of numerous Ph.D., Master’s and undergraduate students. For his dual excellence in the lab and the classroom, he was honored with the FAMU Research Excellence Award and named Teacher of the Year in 2012
Johnson’s administrative career is marked by a commitment to data-driven institutional transformation. Having served in key roles — including assistant dean of the College of Science and Technology, assistant vice president for strategic planning, and interim vice president for strategic planning, analysis and institutional effectiveness — he has developed a comprehensive command of the university’s research and student success operations. Notably, he engineered a student success framework that yielded a transformative 86% increase in FAMU’s four-year graduation rate and established the university’s first Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), which has supported over 500 students.
