David Johnson

This is an obituary of David Johnson written by Dr. Jay Muthuswamy, Associate Professor of Finance at Kent State University and Deputy Managing Editor of Algorithmic Finance.

I first made contact with David in 2008 in the context of showing him the keynote speech I had delivered in Tokyo earlier that year. The speech referred partly to his favorite topic: complexity. He responded magnificently. And also on the more than 10,000 other e-mails from me since – some of which were pesky at best.

David Johnson has inspired me beyond words. He is a man of action. Although we fundamentally disagreed on the direction of the world, we did so amicably. That is largely due to his great class, coupled with his ability to play the game “agree to disagree”. It was an honor to have him as a founding member of the advisory board of our journal.

Lately I asked him to be my chief tester in a Zero Knowledge test. He agreed.

I am the one to be blamed if I took my time with that game. One primary reason I did so was that it involved NP vs P, possibly the biggest tenet of complexity. But now it is too late.

He will be very sorely missed. I salute him. May his soul rest in peace.

Such a person as Dr. David Johnson comes around only once in a thousand years.

Jay Muthuswamy

Deputy Managing Editor of Algorithmic Finance