Thomas Harvey Johnston

Thomas Harvey Johnston (9 December 1881 – 30 August 1951) was an Australian biologist and parasitologist. He championed the efforts to eradicate the invasive prickly pear.

Johnston was born in 1881 at Balmain, Sydney, Australia the son of Thomas Johnston, an Irish-born foreman mason, and his Australian-born wife Mary, née McLeod. On 1 January 1907, Johnston married Alice Maude Pearce at Petersham, New South Wales, Australia. On 30 August 1951, he died of coronary thrombosis at Adelaide, South Australia. He was survived by his wife and daughter. His son predeceased him. He was cremated.

Johnston attended Sydney Teachers College and received the Jones Memorial Medal. He then attended the University of Sydney and earned a BA in 1906, the BSc and MA in 1907 and received the DSc in parasitology in 1911. From 1903 to 1906, Johnston taught at Fort Street Public School. He then accepted a position at Sydney Technical College and from 1907 to 1908 taught zoology and physiology. In 1908, he was appointed assistant director at Bathurst Technical College.

In 1909, Johnston accepted a position as assistant microbiologist at the New South Wales Health Department in the Bureau of Microbiology. The next appointment came in 1911, at the University of Queensland as lecturer in charge of the department of biology. In 1919, Johnston was promoted to professor.

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