Marc Johnson is a professor of biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He is the Canada Research Chair for Urban Environmental Science, and was the first Director of the Centre for Urban Environments from 2018-2023.
Johnson obtained his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Toronto in 2007, after which he conducted a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship at Duke University.
Johnson's research uses concepts and methods from genetics, ecology, evolution and chemistry to look at plants and plant-animal interactions and adaptations to urban environments. His recent work under the Global Urban Evolution Project looked at white clover populations from 160 cities to investigate responses to urban environmental change. Dr. Johnson has over 100 scientific publications. Most cited publications include; "Ecological consequences of genetic diversity", "Evolution of life in urban environments", "Assembly and ecological function of the root microbiome across angiosperm plant species".