Deborah G. Johnson is the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics and Chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences of the University of Virginia. Johnson received the John Barwise prize from the American Philosophical Association in 2004; the ACM SIGCAS Making a Difference Award in 2000; and the Sterling Olmsted Award from the Liberal Education Division of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Johnson is the author/editor of four books: Computer Ethics (Prentice Hall, third edition, 2001); Computers, Ethics, and Social Values (co-edited with Helen Nissenbaum, Prentice Hall, 1995); Ethical Issues in Engineering (Prentice Hall, 1991); and Ethical Issues in the Use of Computers (co-edited with John Snapper, Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1985). She is currently at work on a grant from the National Science Foundation to integrate insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies with ethics.

Johnson has published over 50 papers in a variety of journals and edited volumes. Her papers have appeared in Communications of the ACM, Ethics, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, The Monist, and The Encyclopedia of Ethics. She co-edits the journal, Ethics and Information Technology published by Kluwer and co-edits a book series on Women, Gender, and Technology with S. Rosser and M.F. Fox for University of Illinois Press.

Johnson has taught courses on ethical theory; information technology, ethics, and policy; engineering ethics; and values and policy. During 1992-93 she was a visiting professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Operations Research of Princeton University where she worked on a National Science Foundation project on ethics and computer decision models. In 1994 and 1995 she received National Science Foundation funding to conduct workshops to prepare undergraduate faculty to teach courses and course modules on ethical and professional issues in computing. Then again during 2000-2003, she was co-principal investigator for another NSF grant that offered workshops on teaching computer ethics using the Web.

Active in professional organizations, Johnson has served as president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, president of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT), treasurer of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computers and Society, and chair of the American Philosophical Association Committee on Computers and Philosophy.