Stanford alum receives top national honor for 3D imaging

Kristina M. Johnson ’79 M.A. ’81 Ph.D. ’84 wasn’t always interested in electronics. But when she was a sophomore at Stanford, her father, who was an electrical engineer, died during fall quarter. 

“I kind of felt like I got robbed of knowing him as an adult,” said Johnson, who was selected as one of nine recipients of the National Medal for Technology and Innovation by former President Joe Biden earlier this year. “So, the next day, I declared for electrical engineering.”

An annual tradition by the sitting President of the United States, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation ceremony held this year on Jan. 3, recognizes American innovators whose vision and work helped transform the economy and overall standard of living. These innovators, the White House states, “have harnessed the power of science and technology to tackle challenging problems and deliver innovative solutions for Americans and for communities around the world.”

Johnson was recognized for her work that has “transformed optoelectronic imaging, 3D imaging and color management stations,” stated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Alongside her direct involvement in scientific research, Johnson was acknowledged for expanding the field of STEM for all Americans. 

After completing her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford, Johnson went to the University of Colorado Boulder to study optoelectronics, an area that focuses on devices that either emit or detect light. There, Johnson founded “ColorLink,” which ended up revolutionizing the 3D movie industry. 

Johnson reflected with gratitude on the moment when having received the award in front of everyone at the White House. 

“It was a big moment,” Johnson said. “I was thinking a lot about the other awardees and what they accomplished.” In 2023, John M. Cioffi ’79, who significantly contributed to broadband internet connectivity, received the medal as well. 

Johnson said she noticed that there was a common thread she picked up amidst the room of recipients. 

“I did digital displays,” she said. “It was interesting to see there was a theme of using information and tools of this age for the betterment of humankind. It also seemed like maybe there was a sign of the times how much digitization and signal processing has influenced society.”

The motivation for her research began in the early days of 3D movies, such as “The Black Lagoon” in the 1950s.

“It’s hilarious,” Johnson said. She described how the audience would wear glasses with red and blue filters over their eyes. Different scenes from the movie would come in at different angles and colors, confusing the eyes to create a 3D feel. 

However, more importantly, there was a problem that Johnson noticed in the glasses’ dye.

“The kind of filters that the people were wearing were dye-based, and dyes are not very selective,” Johnson said. “In other words, when you’re looking at one scene from the red eye, you’re leaking some of the blue through it. The scene of the blue, it’s being leaked through the red eye. So the original 3D movies had a lot of annoying ghosting artifacts.”

Johnson explained how the key insight to solving this issue came from rereading papers from one of her professors at Stanford, Steve Harris. Rather than “applying mathematics to how we communicate” through radio, she said his work made it possible to communicate through imagery. Ultimately, her company created 3D glasses that had no color leakage from the two sides of the glasses.

“He’s talking about building filters in the radio frequencies,” Johnson said. “But if you shift those frequencies to where you see color — very high frequencies, very short wavelengths — you can actually create the same sort of filters just in the visual band, as opposed to the radio bands.

Johnson said her students were integral to the process of creating these companies.

For example, Johnson recounted a humorous experience regarding another product by ColorLink which involved color technology in rear projection TVs when her and her students were asked by someone at Circuit City if they wanted an explanation of how one of the products worked — when Johnson and her students were the ones who developed it.

“I think the students really appreciated being able to see what they were doing in the lab result in real products,” Johnson said. “I love that there’s a whole evolution of how a student approaches independent research and when that light bulb goes off, there’s nothing more gratifying for a professor.”

While at Stanford, Johnson lived in Larkin and Phi Psi and played varsity field hockey. Johnson said she was thankful for her time at Stanford, recounting a conundrum that she often felt while playing sports: while her teammates recovered from injuries and cuts, she did not. For example, she sometimes would scrape her knee and it wouldn’t heal, even after a few weeks. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma; thankfully, Henry S. Kaplan — a radiologist at the time — and other doctors at Stanford were able to help treat it. 

Johnson currently serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems, an organization that focuses on hardware development and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

In 2009, Johnson was unanimously confirmed to be the Undersecretary of Energy by the U.S. Senate under former President Barack Obama. After serving as Chancellor for the State University of New York — which consists of 64 campuses — Johnson served as the President of the Ohio State University from 2020 to 2023. 

During her tenure at the Ohio State University, Johnson prioritized research spending and STEM initiatives, which included her race, inclusion and social equity (RAISE) initiative that focused on recruiting scholars who predominantly cover social equity in their respective work. 

Johnson’s motivations for fostering social equity in these settings stem from her personal experience.

“I never had a woman professor in any of my technical subjects,” Johnson said. “I only had two women professors overall…both were terrific.”

Through all of her experiences at Stanford, ColorLink and beyond, Johnson said she realized that many look up to people they can aspire to become.

“The power of seeing someone who looks like you — that has kept me [going] my entire career, as I wanted to be a role model for women to succeed,” Johnson said. “If you can see it, you can believe it.”

Kaddu Sebunya, the African Wildlife Foundation CEO and friend of Johnson, congratulated her on her achievement. “This recognition celebrates her groundbreaking contributions, leadership, and dedication to innovation that continue to inspire so many of us,” Sebunya said in a statement on X. “Her story is a powerful reminder of what visionary leadership and tireless commitment to advancing science and technology can achieve.”

Johnson called the motivation for her career an effort to “introduce a program that would help attract outstanding people to the field of engineering…especially women and underrepresented minorities.”

For aspiring individuals in any profession, Johnson has one piece of advice.

“Nobody knows what you can do but you, so don’t listen to anybody else,” Johnson said. “Just do you.”

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