John Zarnecki | |
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 John Zarnecki chairing the 11 December 2015 ordinary meeting of theRoyal Astronomical Society | |
| Born | (1949-11-06)6 November 1949 (age 75) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Highgate School Queens' College, Cambridge University College London |
| Occupation(s) | Space science academic and researcher |
Jan Charles "John" Zarnecki,FRAS FInstP (born 6 November 1949[1] inFinchley,Middlesex,England) is an Englishspace science professor and researcher. Since 2013, Zarnecki has been a Director of theInternational Space Science Institute (Berne, Switzerland). Between 2004 and 2013 he was a Professor of Space Science (now Emeritus) at theOpen University, having previously been a professor and researcher at theUniversity of Kent.
Zarnecki has taken part in several high-profile space probe missions and is an expert onspace debris,space dust and impacts. He was awarded theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014,[2] and became President of theRoyal Astronomical Society in May 2016, having been vice-president from 2009 to 2011 and President-Elect for the year from May 2015.[3]
Born and raised inFinchley, Middlesex, the son of the art historianGeorge Zarnecki,[1] he was educated atHighgate School in north London 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 ofKarl Marx inHighgate Cemetery nearby. Zarnecki was among those who went.[4]
Zarnecki graduated with aBA degree in Natural Sciences fromQueens' College, Cambridge in 1971 (promoted toMA in 1975). He undertook doctoral research at theMullard Space Science Laboratory inSurrey and subsequently obtained aPhD degree in Physics and Astronomy fromUniversity College London in 1977.[5]
In the course of his career, Zarnecki has worked on hardware for many space missions. At first, he worked forBritish Aerospace and was part of the team that developed theFaint Object Camera for theHubble Space Telescope. In 1981, he moved to theUniversity of Kent inCanterbury and became the project manager for the Dust Impact Detection System on board theGiotto probe that visitedHalley's Comet.
In 1988, Zarnecki was involved in plans to provide instrumentation for a proposed asteroid mission called Vesta, but, when this was dropped in favour of theCassini–Huygens mission toSaturn and its moons, he and his team decided to use their expertise to design theSurface Science Package (SSP) for theHuygens probe. The probe would be released from the main spacecraft (Cassini) and descend to the surface of Saturn's largest moonTitan. The proposal was successful and, in 1990, Zarnecki was appointed as the SSP's Principal Investigator.
The next seven years were spent assembling and testing the instrument. With only 70% of necessary funds available, Zarnecki had to be creative with the resources he was assigned. He managed to persuade a group of scientists inPoland to provide part of the instrumentation for free.
One major setback came during the final stages of testing when, on 14 January 1996, the package was put through its final vibration test and its casing cracked. After some extensive redesign, the package was delivered to theEuropean Space Agency (ESA). On 15 October 1997, Cassini-Huygens was successfully launched fromCape Canaveral.
In 2000, Zarnecki, along with the rest of the SSP team, moved to the Open University inMilton Keynes. There he became involved in the ill-fatedBeagle 2 mission toMars, lost while landing in December 2003.
On 25 December 2004, the Huygens probe separated successfully from Cassini and twenty-two days later, on 14 January 2005, it landed successfully on the surface of Titan. The SSP collected over three and a half hours of data, which, thanks to its efficient encoding, could be stored on a singlefloppy disk. TheBBC Four television documentaryDestination Titan, first broadcast in April 2011, focused on Zarnecki and the Huygens mission from the perspective of the mission scientists.[6]
Between 2007 and 2009, Zarnecki was the Directory of the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space & Astronomical Research (CEPSAR) at the Open University.[7] He is currently working as the team leader on theExoMars mission, Europe's firstMars rover mission. He is also co-investigator on the PTOLEMY instrument for theRosetta mission to comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
In 2005, Zarnecki won theSir Arthur Clarke Award for individual achievement, for his work on the Huygens probe.
TheInternational Academy of Astronautics (IAA) 2006 Laurels for Team Achievement was awarded to the Cassini-Huygens team.[5]
In 2006, Asteroid 17920 was namedZarnecki by theInternational Astronomical Union, in recognition of “..spacecraft instrumentation to study the surfaces and atmospheres of planets, satellites and small bodies".[5]
He and his group won theNASA Group Achievement Award for the "Huygens Surface Science Package" in 2007.[5]
He was awarded theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014.[2]
In September 2014 Zarnecki was appointed a Foreign Member of thePolish Academy of Arts and Sciences for his significant contribution to Polish science.[8]
In 2016, he was appointed aFellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). Besides that, he is aFellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP), aChartered Physicist (CPhys) and Member of theInternational Astronomical Union.[5]
Zarnecki lives inMilton Keynes and has a house in the south of France. He is a passionate supporter ofCrystal Palace Football Club.[citation needed]
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