[citation needed] There, Clark earned his bachelor's and a master's degrees in physics, followed by a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah in 1974.

Clark's research work concerned geometry pipelines, specialized software or hardware that accelerates the display of three dimensional images.

The peak of his group's advancements was the Geometry Engine, an early hardware accelerator for rendering computer images based on geometric models which he developed in 1979 with his students at Stanford.

[6] Clark had differences of opinion with Silicon Graphics management regarding the future direction of the company,[citation needed] and departed in late January 1994.

However, an Atlanta, Georgia startup company, WebMD originally focused on medical content was also making similar in-roads.

Clark was chairman and financial backer of network-security startup Neoteris, founded in 2000, which was acquired by NetScreen in 2003 and subsequently by Juniper Networks.

In 2003, the company was acquired by Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc. Clark was the subject of the 1999 bestseller The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by U.S. author Michael Lewis.

His funding made possible the purchase and covert installation of some high-tech camera and sound-recording equipment required to capture the film's climactic dolphin slaughter.

[15] In 2020, Clark announced the $30M A round of funding for Beyond Identity, with a product that is a phone-resident personal certificate-based authentication and authorization solution that eliminates all passwords.

[17] He was a recipient of the 1997 Kilby International Awards, which honored him for his computer graphics vision and for enabling networked information exchange.

The divorce from his third wife of 15 years, Nancy Rutter, a Forbes journalist, is reported to have cost him $125 million in cash and assets in the settlement.

[23] Clark is an enthusiastic yachtsman but cannot sail in rough ocean races such as the Sydney-Hobart due to an arthritic condition in his ankles[24] and prefers one-day regattas on the smoother waters of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and off Newport, Rhode Island.

[40] In September 2001, Clark rescinded $60 million of his initial pledge, citing anger over President Bush's restrictions on stem cell research.

[47] Clark is a board member for the national council of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and contributes towards the organization.