John T. Clarke (born 1952) is a professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. Clarke is best known for his Hubble Space Telescope observations of the aurora on Jupiter and Saturn, as well as over 260 papers in refereed journals, including every planet except Mercury and the interplanetary medium.[1] Clarke's research is focussed on vacuum ultraviolet instrumentation and observations of planetary atmospheres. At present this includes primarily observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, overseeing the echelle channel on the MAVEN IUVS instrument orbiting Mars, and as Deputy-PI for the upcoming GLIDE mission to image the Earth's geocorona.
Clarke was born in Chicago, Illinois. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from Denison University, located in Ohio, in 1974. He received both his master's and Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University, in 1978 and 1980, respectively.[2] His thesis involved far-ultraviolet observations of Jupiter and Saturn using the IUE satellite and a sounding rocket, including the aurora and day glow on both planets and the Io plasma torus.
Clarke began his career in 1980 as an Assistant Research Physicist at the space sciences laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. He observed X-ray sources from ground-based telescopes and found the first evidence for aurora on Uranus.
In 1984 he became the Deputy Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope Project at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. After a year, he became an Advanced Instruments Scientist for the same Hubble Space Telescope Project, this time at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
From 1987 to 2001 Clarke was a Research Scientist at the University of Michigan.
From 2001 to the present, Clarke is a Professor of Astronomy and the Director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. His research focuses on planetary atmospheres, planetary atmospheres, and UV instrumentation. He is the author or co-author of over 260 articles in refereed journals.
Clarke has had observing programs with the Hubble Space Telescope in every cycle of the program, with observationsof planetary atmospheres and aurora, and was on the science team for the WFPC 2. He also currently has a sounding rocket research program, and is a Co-I on the MAVEN mission to Mars.[3] [4]