Title
John Clarke
Affiliation
UC Berkeley
Presentation Type
Interview
Oral History: John Clarke (2016)
Presenter
Title
Mary Ann C. Hellrigel
Affiliation
Institutional Historian & Archivist, IEEE History Center
Presentation Menu
Abstract
Interview #777 for the IEEE History Center, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
John Clarke, an oral history conducted in 2016 by Mary Ann Hellrigel, IEEE History Center, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
Date:
September 2016
Description
John Clarke received his B.A. (1964), Ph.D. (1968), and Sc.D. (2005) from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K. After a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley (1968-1969), he joined the Physics faculty, and he has been a member of the Physics Department since 1969. He received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1983 and he was the UC Berkeley Faculty Research Lecturer in 2005. Clake is also a Faculty Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Institute of Physics (UK). He has been a Sloan Foundation Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Miller Professor. In 1987, he was named California Scientist of the Year and was awarded the Fritz London Prize for research in low-temperature physics. He is also the recipient of the IEEE-USA Electrotechnology Transfer Award, 1995; the American Physical Society’s Joseph F. Keithley Award for Advances in Measurement Science, 1998; the National Academy of Sciences’ Comstock Prize for Physics, 1999; and the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, 2004.
Clarke’s research fields are condensed matter physical and materials science. His principal area of research is the development, noise limitations, and applications of Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs). His research interests include fundamental aspects of superconductivity, and the development and application of low- and high-transition-temperature SQUIDs to a broad range of problems, including low-frequency nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging, decoherence in mesoscopic circuits, biosensors, and axion detectors.
In 2002, Clarke received the IEEE Council on Superconductivity’s Award for Continuing and Significant Contributions in the Field of Applied Superconductivity, 2002. The citation states: “For significant and continuing contributions in the field of superconducting electronics as a researcher, educator and mentor, in particular:
- for the elucidation of the fundamental noise limitations of SQUID magnetic sensors;
- for the evaluation and exploitation of SQUID magnetic sensors in geophysical exploration, NMR, NQR and MRI;
- for low noise SQUID amplifiers, for mentoring a large number of students who subsequently have played major roles in superconductivity research and development groups throughout the world;
- for being an articulate advocate for SQUID technology at technical, scientific, and medical conferences and workshops.”
