Dan Johnson the mentor

Abstract

I first met Dan Johnson in early 1975 as I was interviewing for an engineering job with Henning von Gierke’s bioengineering and bionics laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base. From the very beginning Dan was always direct and forthright. Over the ensuing next 27 years my knowledge and respect of Dan constantly grew. This presentation will review Dan’s technical and personal contributions while at the laboratory at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base. He was instrumental in the development of a national noise exposure criteria with the equal-energy-rule, an accurate single number hearing protector attenuation measure based on ‘‘C-A,’’ an impulse noise exposure criteria, a longitudinal study of hearing loss in children, development of noise dosimeters, and description of hearing damage risk from nonoccupational noise exposures such as disco’s, bowling alleys, lawn mowers, and school buses. Dan has had a significant effect on my career. I and the many people who knew him at the laboratory miss him greatly.