James Johnstone was a Scottish biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

 and oceanographer. His studies focused on the food chain in marine ecosystems.

Johnstone began his working life as an apprentice woodcarver in Lochwinnoch

Lochwinnoch

Lochwinnoch is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying on the banks of Castle Semple Loch and the River Calder, Lochwinnoch is chiefly a residential dormitory village serving nearby urban centres such as Glasgow and Paisley...

, but rose to become professor at the University of Liverpool

University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

 heading the chair of oceanography which had been created in 1919 by professor William Abbott Herdman

William Abbott Herdman

Sir William Abbott Herdman was a Scottish marine zoologist and oceanographer.Archibald Geikie taught him geology during his time at the University of Edinburgh. Herdman graduated at Edinburgh in 1879 and became the assistant of Sir Charles Wyville Thomson...

 and his wife. James Johnstone a had this responsibility from 1920 to 1932

James Johnstone was a founding member of the Society for Experimental Biology

Society for Experimental Biology

The Society for Experimental Biology is a learned society which was established in 1923 at Birkbeck College in London to “promote the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches”. The Society has an international membership of approximately 2000 biological researchers, teachers and...

 (SEB). He was also active in creating the British Journal of Experimental Biology (BJEB) being on the journal's editorial board. În 1929, the publication changed its name to Journal of Experimental Biology

To honor his memory, a flatworm

Flatworm

The flatworms, known in scientific literature as Platyhelminthes or Plathelminthes are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrate animals...

Rhipidocotyle johnstonei was named after James Johnstone.