People like Erin Johnson

Erin Johnson is a Canadian computational chemist. She holds the Herzberg–Becke Chair at Dalhousie University. She works on density functional theory and intermolecular interactions.

Johnson is from Ottawa, Canada. She completed her B.Sc. Hons. in Integrated Science (chemistry/mathematics) at Carleton University in 2004. She earned her PhD at Queen's University in 2007, working with Axel D. Becke. In 2006, they demonstrated a simple potential for exchange energies; the Becke–Johnson potential. She developed the exchange-hole dipole moment dispersion model (XDM), which describes intermolecular interactions. The model is a density functional model based on second-order perturbation theory, and uses the interaction of induced dipoles to model dispersion. Her PhD focussed on improving the accuracy and efficiency of computational chemistry. She was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council postdoctoral fellow at Duke University with Yang Weitao from 2007 to 2010. They developed fractional spin density functional theory to describe open-shell singlet diradicals. She looked at the energy splitting between spin-states, connecting them to the ionisation potential and electron affinity.