Victoria (Vicky) E. Johnson, an associate professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine, died on September 4 from metastatic colon cancer. She was 44. 

Born and raised in Scotland, Dr. Johnson earned three degrees from the University of Glasgow: her BS in clinical neurology (2003), her MD (2005), and her PhD in neural pathology (2012). After earning her medical degree, she moved to Philadelphia in 2005 to take a position as a postdoc in neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, where she studied under Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair. She joined the Penn faculty in 2013 as an instructor of neurosurgery and joined the tenure track in 2016 as an assistant professor. At Penn, she quickly established herself as a leader in her field, securing funding from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. 

Her research focused on the chronic neuropathological sequelae of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), including the links between TBI and neurodegenerative disease. Dr Johnson specifically examined postmortem brain tissue acutely and chronically following TBI in humans. In recent publications, Dr. Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that even a single TBI is associated with an increased incidence of Alzheimer-associated pathologies many years after injury. 

In 2024, she published a landmark paper in Brain on traumatic brain injuries in contact sports and was awarded a major new NIH grant; in 2025, shortly before she died, she became an associate professor.

Dr. Johnson’s career was short but renowned. She was a two-time winner of the Murray Goldstein Award for Excellence in Neurotrauma Research, and in 2024, Penn’s department of neurosurgery ranked 3rd in the nation in NIH funding research among departments of neurosurgery, thanks in part to grants awarded to Dr. Johnson, a top-funded researcher. 

Daniel Yoshor, chair of neurosurgery, and Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair, and Dr. Johnson’s long-time mentor, PI and collaborator, described her as a “cherished member of the Penn research community whose legacy will live on through the colleagues and trainees she inspired and the transformative research she led.” Dr. Johnson became a U.S. citizen in 2022, which brought her great pride. 

She is survived by her nephew and niece, Patrick and Charlotte Johnson; her dear friend, Orli Smith; her brother, Scott Johnson (Victoria Carson); and her parents, Frederick and Eleanor Johnson. 

Memorial services are currently being planned, and details will be shared with family and friends. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to the Keystone Care Keystone House in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.