About Tim

Timothy P. Johnson is a survey methodologist with more than 35 years of experience studying measurement and nonresponse error. His research centers on a deceptively hard problem: the cultural variability in how people cognitively process and answer survey questions - and what that means for the data we build policy and science on.

From 1996 to 2019 he directed the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he generated nearly $30 million in research funding. An enormously productive scholar, his work spans seven edited volumes and hundreds of refereed articles and book chapters - advancing the science of survey measurement, improving representation of hard-to-count populations, and producing innovations in cross-cultural methodology. His applied research on health behavior spans substance use, mental health, cancer screening, and nutrition, always with a commitment to the health and well-being of underserved communities.

Tim's generosity to students and colleagues is legendary. Through decades of teaching and serving on more than 80 dissertation committees at UIC, he helped shape the methodological development of an entire generation of researchers.

Today he serves as a Senior Research Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago and as Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago. His executive leadership across the profession is nearly unparalleled - including the presidencies of AAPOR, WAPOR, MAPOR, and AASRO - and his leadership of AAPOR's Transparency Initiative helped establish the standards now guiding accountable survey practice nationwide. Among his many recognitions: the 2023 AAPOR Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement Award - the association's highest lifetime honor - Fellow of the American Statistical Association (2015), and the AAPOR Book Award (2013).

He is, by every available measure, far too modest about all of it.