David H. Johnson, M.D. is the Cornelius Abernathy Craig Professor in Medical and Surgical Oncology and Deputy Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He was appointed Director of the Division of Medical Oncology in 1991 for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In 1998, he assumed the directorship of a newly constituted combined Division of Hematology & Oncology (formed from the previous separate Divisions of Hematology and Oncology).

Dr. Johnson is a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia and joined the Vanderbilt faculty upon completion of his oncology fellowship in 1983. He is a board-certified internist and medical oncologist, an internationally recognized clinical investigator in the fields of lung and breast cancer, the author of over 280 publications, editor or co-editor of numerous oncology textbooks and a member of the editorial board of numerous internal medicine and cancer journals. He has served on numerous committees and panels for the National Cancer Institute and Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Johnson is the immediate past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (the largest professional organization representing doctors who care for cancer patients) and a member of numerous professional societies including the American Association for Cancer Research, The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the American College of Physicians, and various local medical associations. Dr. Johnson is also a founding member of the Southern Association for Oncology.

For his pioneering work in the treatment of lung cancer, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group named Dr. Johnson Investigator of the Year in 1992. He has received other awards for his research in lung cancer including the University of Michigan's Frank S. Moran Award as well as a special recognition award from the Alliance of Lung Cancer Survivors' Network Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award in 1997. This year he served as the James Horner Visiting Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine home coming symposium. Over the past two decades Dr. Johnson has been named to numerous "Best Doctors" lists including the prestigious Woodward & White's Best Doctors in America, Good Housekeeping magazine's "top oncologists for women" and in 1996 he was identified by American Health magazine as one of the best oncology specialists in the U.S. in a poll taken among Department of Medicine Chairmen. Only 31 oncologists were so recognized.