Sonke Johnsen
Professor of Biology
Appointments and Affiliations
- Professor of Biology
- Professor in the Division of Marine Science and Conservation
- Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
- Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Contact Information
- Office Location: 301 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
- Office Phone: +1 919 660 7321
- Email Address: sjohnsen@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1996
- B.A. Swarthmore College, 1988
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- Best Publication in 2020. Deep-Sea Biological Society. 2021
- top 50 Publication in chemistry or materials science. Nature Communications journal . 2021
Courses Taught
- PSY 427S: Current Topics in Sensory Biology
- NEUROSCI 427S: Current Topics in Sensory Biology
- NEUROSCI 392: Neuroscience Independent Scholarship 2: Advanced Topics
- NEUROSCI 391: Neuroscience Independent Scholarship 1: Advanced Topics
- MARSCI 427A: Current Topics in Sensory Biology
- BIOLOGY 792: Research
- BIOLOGY 791T: Tutorial
- BIOLOGY 493: Research Independent Study
- BIOLOGY 427S: Current Topics in Sensory Biology
- BIOLOGY 427A: Current Topics in Sensory Biology
- BIOLOGY 293: Research Independent Study
In the News
- Duke Awards 32 New Distinguished Professorships for 2024 (Mar 19, 2024 | Duke Today)
- Brittle Stars Can Learn Just Fine -- Even Without a Brain (Nov 29, 2023 | Duke Today)
- This Fish Doesn’t Just See With Its Eyes -- It Also Sees With Its Skin. (Aug 22, 2023 | Duke Today)
- Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Become Transparent (Jan 3, 2023 | Pratt School of Engineering)
- Traveling With Friends Helps Even Mixed-Up Migrators Find Their Way (Dec 9, 2022 | Duke Research Blog)
- Check This Out! Watch Whales Catch Their Favorite Food By Blowing Bubbles (Nov 5, 2020)
- Ultra-Black Skin Allows Some Fish to Lurk Unseen (Jul 16, 2020)
- Green is More Than Skin-Deep for Hundreds of Frog Species (Jul 13, 2020)
- To Make Ultra-Black Materials That Won’t Weigh Things Down, Consider the Butterfly (Mar 10, 2020)
- Solar Storms Could Scramble Whales' Navigational Sense (Feb 24, 2020)
- Monsters from the Deep: Duke-Led Research Team Captures Rare Video of Giant Squid (Jun 24, 2019 | CNN)
- Portrait of a Scientist as a Photographer (Sep 18, 2018 | Duke Arts)
- Project on Color Vision of Shrimp Helps Biology Students See Data Science in New Light (Jun 8, 2018 | Interdisciplinary Studies)
- Details That Look Sharp to People May be Blurry to Their Pets (May 30, 2018)
- How Deep-Sea Fish Are So Exceptionally Black (Apr 22, 2018 | National Geographic)
- How the Color-Changing Hogfish Sees With Its Skin (Mar 12, 2018)
- Mismatched Eyes Help Squid Survive Oceans Twilight Zone (Feb 13, 2017)
- Midwater Ocean Creatures Use Nanotech Camouflage (Nov 3, 2016)
- Sonke Johnsen: In the ocean, invisibility trumps ultra-vision (Aug 23, 2016 | Cosmos Magazine)
- In the Ocean, Clever Camouflage Beats Super Sight (Aug 23, 2016)
- Sönke Johnsen: Some animals ‘see’ the world through oddball eyes (May 18, 2016 | Science News)
- Black Widows: Obvious to Predators, Stealthy to Prey (Feb 29, 2016)
- Post-exercise fog muddies a see-through shrimp’s cloak of invisibility (Jan 8, 2016 | Science Daily)
- Camouflaged Cuttlefish Employ Electrical Stealth (Dec 1, 2015)
- Johnsen's Book wins PROSE Award (Apr 1, 2015)
- Sönke Johnsen explores a world of creatures that hide in the open (Aug 19, 2014 | The New York Times)
Representative Publications
- Caves, EM; Green, PA; Zipple, MN; Bharath, D; Peters, S; Johnsen, S; Nowicki, S, Comparison of Categorical Color Perception in Two Estrildid Finches., The American naturalist, vol 197 no. 2 (2021), pp. 190-202 [10.1086/712379] [abs].