[7] While completing his doctorate at FSU, Clarke worked as instructor and director of development in the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences at Thomas County Community College from 1975 to 1976.

[2] Later in 1976, Clarke assumed a position as instructor and research associate in the Department of Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

[2] In 1977, Clarke left Case Western for a two–year Parker B. Francis Foundation Fellowship in the Department of Physiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

[8] While working for the US Navy, Clarke accepted an appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor with Graduate Advisory Status for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences from 1984 to 1990.

[2] Clarke accepted an appointment as a Visiting Principal Fellow at the University of Wollongong in April 1998 to advise on a doctoral project.

The divers soon find themselves caught between the alien civilization and their own government as they work to avert disaster while unknowingly competing with their friends in the recovery.

Award winning author and physician Rachel Scott suggested readers not "start this read at bedtime, if you plan to get any sleep!".

[21] Max McCoy, author for the Indiana Jones franchise from 1995 on, claimed that Middle Waters was a book he had wished he'd written and would read over and over again.

[21] This was based partially on the fact that the main character is a diving scientist, a role that Clarke knows well and expertly conveys his knowledge to the reader.

[18][24] In 1998, Clarke was selected as a Naval Sea Systems Command Spring 1998 trainee for "Leadership for a Democratic Society" course at the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia.

[2] Clarke won first place in the 2010 "best first line in a comic vampire novel" contest held by the Ozark Creative Writers' Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.