Rate My Professor Oliver Johnson

Professor Oliver Johnson holds the position of Professor of Information Theory and serves as Head of the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol. He earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (Cantab.). Earlier in his career, he was a Max Newman Research Fellow at the Statistical Laboratory, Cambridge University, and a Clayton Fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge. He has also held the role of Associate Director at the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research. In addition to his professorial duties, Johnson directs the Institute for Statistical Science at Bristol, leads Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives within Bristol Mathematics, and serves as Programme Director for the MSc in Mathematics of Cybersecurity. He acts as Personal Advisor for the COMPASS CDT in Computational Statistics and Data Science and the Centre for Doctoral Training in Communications, both at the University of Bristol.

Johnson's research centers on applying information theory to comprehend limit theorems in probability and statistics, with a particular emphasis on discrete random variables. His work encompasses transportation of measure, proofs of the Shepp-Olkin entropy concavity and monotonicity conjectures, log-Sobolev inequalities, maximum entropy distributions, monotonicity properties, and group testing, including practical algorithms and fundamental converse bounds. He has authored key books such as 'Information Theory and the Central Limit Theorem' (2004, World Scientific) and 'Numbercrunch,' aimed at a general audience (published 2023). Notable publications include 'Group testing: an information theory perspective' (2019, Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory), 'Group testing algorithms: Bounds and simulations' (2014, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory), 'Fisher information inequalities and the central limit theorem' (2004, Probability Theory and Related Fields), and 'The capacity of adaptive group testing' (2013, IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory). Johnson engages in collaborative interdisciplinary efforts with engineers and computer scientists to explore randomness through theoretical calculations. He is a Fellow of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences and contributes to public understanding of mathematics through writing and lectures.