A life in science grounded President Johnson for leadership
From the BP oil spill to TV displays, a career of accomplishments
At the time, Johnson, now the 16
th president of The Ohio State University, was serving as under-secretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy and it was just days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The spill was an environmental disaster that killed 11 people and poured barrels of oil into the Gulf’s waters. The Deepwater Horizon, a floating drilling rig that had been exploring a well for oil, had sunk. Crude oil was leaking from the open well into the Gulf, and at the time, no one could say how much oil might be pouring out each day.