Marian Johnson-Thompson

Johnson-Thompson established a scholarship at Howard University which supports women scientists from marginalized groups. The scholarship was named after Marie Taylor. In 1997 Johnson-Thompson established the Bridging Education Science and Technology Program at Hillside High School, introducing high school students to molecular biology.

After retiring from University of the District of Columbia in 1994, Johnson-Thompson joined the National Institutes of Health as the director of education and biomedical research development at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, where she was responsible for clinical trials, including the Sister Study, which looked to understand the environmental causes of breast cancer. She found that African-American women were more likely to have more delayed cancer treatment diagnoses, as well as more prolonged treatment.

Marian Cecelia Johnson-Thompson (born December 9, 1946) is an American virologist who was a professor at the University of the District of Columbia. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Johnson-Thompson was born in Boston in 1946. She moved to Riviera Beach, Florida as a child, where she attended high school. As an undergraduate student at Howard University, Johnson-Thompson specialized in microbiology, and graduated with a master's degree in 1971. She moved to Georgetown University for her graduate studies, where she focused on molecular virology. Only a few years after segregation, Johnson-Thompson was the first American-born Black person to complete the graduate program. She completed her doctoral research in the Georgetown University Medical Center in 1978.