https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2424-036X
Overview
Dr. David W. Johnston is a Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology at Duke University and the Associate Dean of Teaching Innovation at the Nicholas School of the Environment. Johnston chairs the Duke Environmental Leadership Master’s Program and is the Director of the Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing (MaRRS) Lab at Duke University. Johnston holds a PhD from Duke University and received post-doctoral training at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. His professional experience ranges from leading research programs for NOAA to working as an ecologist within the NGO sector. Johnston’s research program currently focuses on advancing robotic applications, platforms and sensors for marine science, education, and conservation missions. He has published extensively in top journals in the fields of conservation biology, oceanography, marine ecology and marine policy on research that spans tropical, temperate and polar biomes. Johnston is an innovative teacher with experience in both large and small classrooms, and is skilled in online course development and deployment, field-based learning, and data visualization.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology
·
2022 - Present
Marine Science and Conservation,
Nicholas School of the Environment
Associate Dean for Teaching Innovation in the Nicholas School of the Environment
·
2022 - Present
Nicholas School of the Environment
Recent Scholarly Works
From Pixels to Pods: Integrating Drones and Machine Learning Techniques to Understand Cetacean Social Dynamics
Journal article Marine Mammal Science · October 1, 2026 Our ability to study the fine-scale behavior of cetaceans is evolving rapidly with the use of drones (or unoccupied aircraft systems) as platforms to observe and record behavior and with the emergence of machine learning and data science tools to quantify ... Full text CiteFrom noise to nature: diffusion models to advance wildlife detection in aerial imagery
Journal article Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · August 28, 2026 Automated wildlife detection in aerial imagery can expand the scale and efficiency of ecological monitoring, but model development is often constrained by limited training data, uneven class representation, and poor coverage of ... Full text CiteEcosystem technology (ecotech): Harnessing natural processes to address global challenges.
Journal article Science advances · May 2026 Over the past 80 years, biotechnology has advanced agriculture, health care, and economic development by harnessing biological processes from the organism inward, i.e., from the organ system to the molecular scale. Today's global challenges, including biod ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Validating Acoustic Monitoring as a Non-Invasive Welfare Indicator in Urban Coyotes: Linking Vocalizations to Health Status, Social Dynamics, and Environmental Quality
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Wild Animal Initiative · 2026 - 2029Evaluation of Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UASs) as an Alternative Data Collection Platform for Monitoring Marine Mammals
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Park Service · 2019 - 2028Expanding Capabilities for Tag Deployment on Marine Mammals using Small Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · 2025 - 2027View All Grants
Education
Duke University ·
2004
Ph.D.