[4] Clarke received his bachelor's degree in applied science from the University of Sussex, England in 1968 and joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) as a scientific officer.

He completed his doctoral degree in 1974, from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge and rejoined NPL to work on fiber composites.

[6] He is the inaugural holder of the position of Extended Tarr Family Chair of Materials and Applied Physics at Harvard University.

[1] Clarke studies the mechanical behavior of materials including ceramics, semiconductors,[7] metals, polymers[8] and thermoelectrics.

The microstructural stability of the intergranular phase controls temperature- and electrically-related properties of technical ceramics.

[10] Clarke proposed a model for the discovery of low thermal conductivity ceramics, leading to the identification of a wide range of novel candidates.

Clarke's lab have combined materials in a way that avoids two problems that limit the design of electrically-controlled soft actuators: high voltage and pre-stretching.