1938-2024

figure 1

Professor Emeritus Newell Johnson died in January 2024, aged 85. Graduation from Melbourne Dental School was followed by research at Bristol, which earned him his PhD. Newell then secured the Readership in Experimental Oral Pathology at ‘The London', later taking over as Head of Department from Professor AEW (Loma) Miles in 1976. In 1983, he was appointed as the Head of the MRC Periodontal Diseases Research Programme at The London and Nuffield Professor of Dental Sciences by RCS England.

Newell then accepted a Chair at King's College London where he served for nearly 15 years variously as Head of Oral Medicine and Pathology and Director of Research of the Dental Institute. As a prolific researcher, he worked to identify demineralising patterns of enamel caries and was the first to describe bacterial periodontium penetration in juvenile periodontitis. He argued that clinical markers identified periodontal disease retrospectively, centring research on clinical and laboratory markers for detecting high-risk groups and individuals. On oral cancer, he published papers on epidemiology and aetiology, clinicopathological aspects of cancer and precancer, took interest in its natural history, and initiated a detailed analysis of its genomics.

Following his retirement from King's, Newell took up the position of Foundation Dean/Head of School of Dentistry & Oral Health and Professor of Dental Research at Griffith University, Australia. From 2009, he served as a Senior Fellow, Menzies Health Institute, Queensland; Director of Population Oral Health; Senior Member of Infectious Diseases and Immunology Group; Cancer Research Centre. Here, he developed a passion to critically analyse misgivings in dental training and delivery of dentistry - deliberations that are described eloquently in the La Casada Declaration he wrote with other global experts.

Newell received a remarkable set of honours, awards and appointments nationally and globally, the most senior of which was appointment by Her Majesty the late Queen Elizabeth II as a Companion of the Most Excellent Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for services to oral health and to public health internationally. In supervising 30 successful PhD students, he also influenced the careers of generations of academics for over 55 years, authored many textbooks, and published over 600 research articles. His contributions have been remarkable and he will be greatly missed by so many of us. Newell is survived by his two daughters and three grandchildren.

Saman Warnakulasuriya OBE and DYD Samarawickrama