Engineering Greener Pastures

Published April 2, 2014

by Joe Antoshak, Diamondback Online

Christian Johnson is getting comfortable having his picture taken. The freshman computer science major has garnered attention from the likes of The Wall Street Journal (“they told me not to smile”) and is among the rising young faces in a new generation of cybersecurity specialists.

His resume includes positions such as NASA big data specialist, CEO of a computer company he founded in high school and student board president of this university’s Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students honors program.

"This is really an opportunity for everyone across the university to pull together their collective resources..."

Christian Johnson

In February, the 19-year-old was chosen as the lone undergraduate student representative in the President’s Task Force on Cybersecurity. But if the thought of working in the wake of February’s massive data breach with experts decades his senior scares him, he doesn’t show it.

“This is really an opportunity for everyone across the university to pull together their collective resources,” Johnson said, “and not only strengthen against the problems that came from the breach, but [also] our talent and resources in cybersecurity.”

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