Biography

Raymond Lewis Johnson attended the University of Texas in Austin, arriving in September 1960 and graduating in June 1963. He started graduate school at Rice University, which had decided to desegregate, but two alumni sued to prevent desegregation. He spent the first year as a Research Associate and was admitted as a student in 1964. Raymond completed his oral exams at Rice University, but in 1967, his advisor, Dr. James Douglas Jr., moved from Rice to the University of Chicago. Raymond moved with him and completed the work on his thesis there, returning to Rice in the summer of 1968 to defend his thesis. Raymond was awarded his doctorate in May 1969, becoming the first African American graduate of Rice University. Raymond began recruiting African American students to the University of Maryland during a term as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies from 1987 to 1990. After becoming Chair in 1991, the Associate Chairs selected a strong group of African American students, but together they soon realized that the students were not always communicating with one another. They realized the importance of interacting with their white counterparts; Raymond brought them together to encourage them to interact with their African American counterparts. Raymond brought African American professionals to campus to discuss life after graduate school with the students. Together with colleagues, he organized the first Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS) conference at MSRI in Berkeley in June of 1995, attended by several of his graduate students. Raymond stepped down as Chair in 1996, but continued to assist graduate students, who by then were working well together. Raymond received the PAESMEM award in 2012 and retired in 2014.