John Zarnecki
| Professor John Zarnecki |
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|---|---|
John Zarnecki chairing the 11 December 2015 ordinary meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society
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| Born |
6 November 1949 Finchley, Middlesex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
Highgate School Queen's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Space science academic and researcher |
John (Jan) Charles Zarnecki (born 6 November 1949 in Finchley, Middlesex, England) is an English space science professor and researcher. Since 2013 he has been a Director of the International Space Science Institute in Berne, Switzerland. From 2004–2013 he was Professor of Space Science (now Emeritus) at the Open University, having previously been a professor and researcher at the University of Kent.
Zarnecki has taken part in several high-profile space probe missions and is an expert on space debris, space dust and impacts. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014, and became President of the RAS in May 2016, having been Vice-President from 2009 to 2011 and President Elect for the year from May 2015.
Born and raised in Finchley, Middlesex, the son of George Zarnecki, he was educated at Highgate School and was interested in space exploration from an early age. In 1961, the school gave its pupils a day off to witness the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, visiting the tomb of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery nearby. Zarnecki was among those who went.
Zarnecki later graduated from Queen's College, Cambridge with a physics degree before obtaining a doctorate at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey.
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