His interest in medicine was replaced by a curiosity about teaching and research. Tom entered Wabash thinking he would not graduate-he planned to attend medical school after three years of undergraduate work. To that end he took 19 hours each semester of his freshman year and averaged almost 18 hours per semester throughout his undergrad career. Tom's last research project was to develop molecular methods to distinguish the different species of the protozoan, Paramecium. What is perhaps most significant about Tom's research is that he published articles in refereed journals, including an article in Science, one of our most prestigious journals, on each of the four major classes of biomolecules-carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
Most researchers have expertise and hence publications in only one of the four.
In addition to the texts that have been mentioned, he was the founder of Science Notebook, the newspaper column the Biology Department wrote for more than ten years. In those days there was no NYT Science section, no Robert Brazel with NBC-TV, not even a local TV health beat reporter. While the concept was visionary, Tom's suggestion that each author would contribute his or her honorarium to the Johnson Research fund was especially creative. In this novel arrangement a research endowment would continually grow and the faculty author would receive tax credit for a contribution to the College. When only the Indianapolis News subscribed, the fund grew slowly, but when The Columbus Post Dispatch and the South Bend Tribune joined the mini syndication which Tom arranged by personal visits to the managing editor of these papers, the Johnson Fund grew significan etly.