Dr. Johnston is the Robert W. Browne Professor of Dentistry and Chair, Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He graduated from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in 1961 and from Michigan's Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies (Orthodontics) in 1964. He studied anatomy at the Queen's University of Belfast (1961-2) and received a Ph.D. in Anatomy from Case Western Reserve University in 1970.

Before coming to the University of Michigan, he chaired the orthodontic departments of Case Western Reserve University (1971-6) and Saint Louis University (1976-91). Currently, he also serves as director of the Graduate Orthodontic Program at the University of Michigan, where he teaches statistics, cephalometrics, facial growth, occlusal development, and orthodontic history. For the past 30 years, he has studied the differential effects of various orthodontic treatments, the mechanisms of facial growth, and the nature of the interaction between growth and treatment. Extramural support both for this research and for the publications that have resulted from it has been supplied by grants from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

During the course of his 30-year academic career, Dr. Johnston has advised approximately 100 master's theses and has contributed to the education of more than 300 orthodontic specialists. He has lectured widely and is the recipient of numerous of honors, most notably the Albert H. Ketcham award of the American Board of Orthodontics, the 5th International Award of the Italian Society, and the Dewel Award of the American Association of Orthodontics. He has delivered both the Mershon and Salzmann Lectures of the American Association of Orthodontics, the Angle Memorial Lecture of the E.H. Angle Society of Orthodontists (twice), the Northcroft Lecture of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics, and the Arthur Thornton Taylor Memorial Lecture of the Australian Society of Orthodontics. A fellow of both the American and International colleges of dentistry and a fellow in dental surgery by election of the Royal College of Surgeons (England), Dr. Johnston serves on the editorial boards of a number of orthodontic journals, including both the American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics and the (British) Journal of Orthodontics; was a member of the Oral Biology and Medicine Study Section of the National Institutes of Health; and was a director of the Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists.

On a personal note, Dr. Johnston is married and has two children, Ann- Christine and Michael. His hobbies include tennis, elderly British sports cars, and old movies.