John Johnston

Dr. John Johnston is an experienced and passionate geoscientist and educator in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. As the department’s Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies, he led a curriculum review to align academic and professional skills and competencies to prepare future professional geoscientists and geological engineers. As a leader in several large and long-standing, multidisciplinary research teams, Johnston reconstructs natural environmental conditions and drivers of change preserved in sedimentary archives used to bridge the gap between historical and geological records. Johnston also strives to Indigenize and decolonize university education, particularly exploring land-based learning and intersections between indigenous and geoscience perspectives.

His expertise in coastal geoscience is used to integrate new approaches with new technologies to address critical water- and climate-related issues challenging society. These include natural patterns and trends of sediment (coastal), water (lake level), ice (glacial isostatic adjustment) and climate (multi-decadal to millennial) to decouple climatic and human influence, place historical events into context and help predict future scenarios. Detailed paleohydrographs have been innovatively reconstructed from relict beach-ridge sequences called strandplains in the Mackenzie and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watersheds in North America, and natural landscape evolution has been reconstructed from a relict embayed archipelago in Pevensey Levels, United Kingdom, to explore medieval human use and abandonment.

Educational research has Johnston currently exploring new integrated learning pathways that engage students with immersive learning in nature (or in the field), digital learning with 3D geological models and tactile learning with geological samples and interactive 3D print models. Creating the first integrated learning framework to understand the geology of Ontario helps unite students with innovative tools and new engaging experiences with a lasting impact. Transferable skills gained in these integrated learning experiences connect to Waterloo’s future ready talent framework that are important in professional practice. Creating, improving and participating in teaching and outreach activities provides Johnston with immense happiness and fulfillment. Johnston has taught more than 70 different courses at four different universities since 2004 (1st to 4th year and graduate courses; online, in-person, blended and field; many for the knowledge requirement for professional Geoscientist and Engineers).

• Stratigraphy and sedimentology

• Coastal geology

• Geochronoloy (age of sedimentary sequences)

• Paleohydrology and paleohydrographic reconstructions

• Paleolimnology (lakes)

• Geodesy (glacial isostatic adjustment)

• Geophysics (ground penetrating radar)

• Geoscience education and outreach

• Experiential and online learning

• Field training of students and professionals

• Indigenizing curriculum

• Land-based learning

• 2004, PhD Geological Sciences, Indiana University, United States

• 1999, MSc Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 1995, BSc Physical Sciences (minor in geology), University of Guelph, Canada

• 2023, Outstanding Performance Award - Outstanding Contributions in Teaching and Scholarship at the University of Waterloo.

• 2022, Jane Lang Excellence in Earth and Environmental Sciences Teaching Award at the University of Waterloo.

• 2015, Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing - Journal of Paleolimnology, in recognition of the timely, thoughtful, and high-quality reviews submitted to ensure the journal’s continued growth and success.

• 2004, Award for Academic Achievement, Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University.

• 2003, Indiana University Department of Geological Sciences Estwing Award

• 2003, International Association for Great Lakes Research Scholarship

• 2003, Distinguished Service Award 2003 – In recognition of valuable contributions to the new Geological Society of America Limnogeology Division. First web manager for this new division.

• 2003, Award for Academic Achievement, Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University.

• 2002, IU Bloomington Professional Council and the Office of the Chancellor Award

• 1995, University of Guelph geology representative for Canadian Energy Geoscience Association, Student-Industry Field Trip

• 1994, Geological Association of Canada Undergraduate Award

• 1994, Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists Undergraduate Award

• 2026, Environmental and Geological Engineering student Capstone Design project (judge)

• 2026, Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference at the University of Waterloo (member of the organizing committee)

• 2025, Conference Session Co-Chair, T33. Tell Me a Story! Communication and Outreach in Geosciences and T28. Great Lakes Coastal Processes and Changes at the Geological Society of America Northeastern and North-Central Section Conference in Erie, PA USA

• 2023, 2024, Norfolk Field Naturalists Talks, Lake Levels in the Upper Great Lakes reconstructed from ancient shorelines and The Geology of Ontario (invited speaker)

• 2023 – 2026, Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo

• 2023, Easy Riders Cycling Club Trip to Niagara Falls Talk, Niagara’s beautiful landscape explained by modern and ancient geological processes – let’s travel back in time! (invited speaker)

• 2021-2022, Mayors Advisory Council on Coastal Resilience, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, Cities Initiative (technical expert)

• 2020, Conference Session Co-Chair, Cores to Drones: Understanding Shoreline Behavior, Processes, and Coastal Landscape Changes in the Great Lakes at the Geological Society of America North-Central Section Conference in Duluth, MN, U.S.A.

• 2019 – Present, North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature (NASCN) (representative for the Geological Association of Canada since 2017). Chair (2020 – 2021) and Vice Chair (2019 – 2020)

• 2019 – Present, Faculty of Science representative in the STEM Indigenization Community of Practice, University of Waterloo

• 2018 – Present, Undergraduate Committee, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo

• 2018, Conference Fieldtrip Co-Leader, Lake-level, shoreline, and dune behavior along the Indiana Southern Shore of Lake Michigan at the 130th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Indianapolis, IN USA

• 2017 – 2020, Michigan Coastal Roundtable facilitated by the US Army Corps of Engineers at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (technical expert)

• 2017, Great Lakes Coastal Mapping Summit or GLCMS (technical contributor and fieldtrip co-leader)

• 2017, Conference Session Co-Chair, Shoreline Behavior, Paralic Architecture, and Lake- Level Change in the Great Lakes.” at the Geological Society of America North Central and Northeastern Section Conference in Champaign, IL USA

• 2016 – 2026, Poster Judge for the student poster competition at the World Water Day Research Fair & Water Celebration, University of Waterloo Water Institute.

• 2016, Conference Session Co-Chair, Shoreline Behavior, Paralic Architecture, and Lake - Level Change in the Great Lakes at the Geological Society of America North Central Section Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, USA

• 2015, 2016, 2017, Presentation Judge for the University of Waterloo Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, Faculty of Science Heats

• 2014, Invited Department of Earth Science Seminar Series Talk at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, Paleohydrographic reconstructions from strandplains of beach ridges in the Laurentian Great Lakes, Eau-Claire, WI, USA

• 2011, 2014, 2016, Professional Workshop: Interpreting the Sediment Record, Theory & Field Methods, United States Army Corp. of Engineers and Great Lakes Commission (technical contributor and fieldtrip co-Leader)

• 2010, Invited Environmental Sciences Seminar Series Talk at the University of Toledo, Are North America’s largest lakes rising or falling? Taped by WGTE Public Media, Toledo, OH, USA. (Great Lakes Research Consortium sponsored)

• 2009, Conference Session Co-chair Quaternary Geology & Sand Dune History of the Great Lakes at the International Association for Great Lakes Research 52nd Annual Conference, Toledo, OH, USA

• 2008, Invited Department of Biology PEARL Seminar Series Talk at Queens University Five millennial-long paleo-hydrographs (Upper GL’s) constructed from ancient shorelines, Kingston, ON. (Great Lakes Research Consortium sponsored)

• 2007, Conference Session Co-chair, Water Levels, Past, Present, and Future Trends at the International Association for Great Lakes Research, 46th Annual Conf. & the International Lake Env. Committee, 10th World Lake Conference, Chicago, IL, USA

• 2007, International Upper Great Lakes Study Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (IUGLS-GIA) Workshop – International Joint Commission”, U.S. Army Corp. Engineers in Chicago, IL, USA (invited presenter and expert contributor)

• 2007, Seventh Annual Grand River Watershed Water Forum, Global Realities ~ Local Solutions - Regional context after the Canadian Space Agency and before the Grand River Conservation Authority, Cambridge, ON (Invited Presenter and Panelist)

• 2007, Invited Department of Earth Sciences Seminar Series Talk at Brock University, Five thousand years of lake-level change in the upper Great Lakes, St. Catherines, ON

• 2006, Invited Department of Geography & Earth Sciences Seminar Series Talk at McMaster University, Raised beaches in the Great Lakes: Insight into past lake levels, Hamilton, ON

• 2005, Invited presenter at the NSERC, Northern Research Chair Annual Meeting Bustard Island: archive of Lake Athabasca water level history at Laval University, Quebec City, QB

• 2005, Invited Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Seminar Series Talk at the University of Waterloo, Raised Beaches in the Great Lakes: Insight into Past Lake Levels at the Waterloo, ON

• 2003, Invited Indiana Geological Survey Seminar Series Talk at Indiana University Ground Penetrating Radar: Principles, Practice, and Procedures, Bloomington, IN, USA

• 2001, Invited Department of Land Resource Sciences Seminar Series Talk at the University of Guelph Raised beaches in the Great Lakes: Insight into past lake levels, Guelph, ON

• 2001, Indiana Geological Survey Seminar Series Training Talk at Indiana University, Introduction to Ground Penetrating Radar and the Noggin 250 SmartCart, Bloomington, IN, USA

• 2001 – 2009, U.S. Geological Survey Global Climate Change meeting, Water Level and Vertical Ground Movement in Lake Superior for the past 5,000 years, at the USGS Great Lakes Science Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA (Invited presenter)

• 1996, Invited Wasaga Beach Provincial Park Nature Walk, Shorelines and Water Levels at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, Wasaga Beach, ON

• Geological Association of Canada

• Geological Society of America

• International Association for Great Lakes Research

• American Geophysical Union

• Great Lakes Research Consortium

• The Water Institute (Member)

• 2020 – 2023, Teaching Fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo

• 2020 – 2022, University of Waterloo, Faculty of Science Online Teaching Task Force (Member)

• 2019 – 2024, University of Waterloo Earth Science Museum Board (Member)

• EARTH 121 - Introductory Earth Sciences
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• EARTH 235 - Stratigraphic Approaches to Understanding Earth's History
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• EARTH 333 - Introductory Sedimentology
  • Taught in 2026
• EARTH 390 - Methods in Geological Mapping
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• EARTH 491 - Special Topics in Earth and Environmental Sciences
  • Taught in 2021

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• For the full list of John Johnston's publications, please see Google Scholar.

• Johnston, John W. and Troop, Meagan, 2021, How to Think Like a Geoscientist: Using ICE to Support Critical and Creative Inquiry, in Sue Fostaty Young and Meagan Troop, eds., Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Across the Disciplines: ICE Stories, E-Campus Ontario Pressbooks. This has been applied in an EARTH 121 Introductory Earth Sciences, Study Site Assessment written assignment since 2017. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/storiesofteachinglearningandassessmentacrossthedisciplines/chapter/instructional-context-6/

• Johnston. J.W., Thompson, T.A., and Wilcox, D.A., 2014, Paleohydrographic reconstructions from strandplains of beach ridges in the Laurentian Great Lakes, in Martini, I. P., and Wanless, H. R., eds., Sedimentary Coastal Zones from High to Low Latitudes: Similarities and Differences, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 388, 213-228. An invited contribution to showcase innovative research among coastlines of the world in the eminent Lyell Collection. https://doi.org/10.1144/sp388.22

• Johnston, J.W., Argyilan, E.P., Thompson, T.A., Baedke, S.J., Lepper, K., Wilcox, D.A., and Forman, S.J., 2012, A sault-outlet-referenced mid- to late-Holocene paleohydrograph for Lake Superior constructed from strandplains of beach ridges, Canadian Journal of Earth Science 49 1-17 (Editor’s Choice). https://doi.org/10.1139/e2012-057

• Johnston, J.W., Köster, D., Wolfe, B., Hall, R.I., Edwards, T.W.D., Endres, A.L., Martin, M.E., Wiklund, J.A., and Light, C., 2010, Quantifying Lake Athabasca (Canada) water level during the 'Little Ice Age' highstand from palaeolimnological and geophysical analyses of a transgressive barrier-beach complex, The Holocene, 20(5) 801-811, https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683610362816

• Johnston, J.W., Thompson, T.A., Wilcox, D.A., and Baedke, S.J., 2007, Geomorphic and sedimentologic evidence for the separation of Lake Superior from Lake Michigan and Huron, Special issue, the Greater and Lesser Great Lakes, Journal of Paleolimnology, v. 37, p. 349-364 (Invited contribution). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-9052-3