Dr. Johnson completed his doctorate in computer science at New York University. He is currently an associate professor in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University. His role at the Simons Foundation is to develop and coordinate information systems to support collaborative research in autism. He has spent the last 20 years researching information systems that support collaboration in patient care, clinical research and basic research. Early research focused on creating online medical record systems that enable clinicians to share information during the process of patient care. Currently, Dr. Johnson directs the informatics resource for the Irving Institute at Columbia, developing a large scale system to support collaboration among investigators engaged in clinical and translational research. These projects combine research interests in the sociology of science, linguistics applied to scientific discourse and methods for diffusing new innovations into scientific practice.