Head and shoulders portrait of Dr. Thorvaldur G. Johnson, Director, Dominion Rust Research Laboratory, Winnipeg; and future honourary Doctor of Laws degree recipient from the University of Saskatchewan in 1967.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Thorvaldur G. Johnson was born in 1897 at Arnes, Manitoba, and attended schools at Arnes and at Saskatoon. After serving with the Royal Air Force in World War I, he obtained a BSc in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan in 1922 and a BSA in Field Husbandry in 1924. Graduate studies at the University of Minnesota were undertaken immediately and resulted in an MSc in 1925 and PhD in Plant Pathology in 1930. Dr. Johnson was first employed by Agriculture Canada in 1923 as a seasonal plant disease investigator. A few years later he was appointed plant pathologist, and in 1946 became director of the rust program at Winnipeg. Dr. Johnson became officer-in-Charge of the Plant Pathology Laboratory in 1953 and in 1959 was appointed director of the newly-established Winnipeg Research Station. He retired in 1962 after an outstanding scientific and administrative career. Dr. Johnson began studies on physiologic specialization and hybridization in the cereal rusts in collaboration with Dr. Margaret Newton in 1926. Their work gained worldwide recognition. During much of his career he was associated with plant breeding programs and made important contributions to the production of rust resistant cereal cultivars for western Canada. In addition to being awarded a fellowship in the American Phytopathological Society in 1966 Dr. Johnson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1950. He also was made a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada in 1958 and an honourary member of the Canadian Seed Growers Association in 1963. Dr. Johnson received the Gold Medal of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada in 1962, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1971. He received an honourary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1962 and an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the U of S in 1967. Dr. Johnson died in Winnipeg in 1979.