John Clarkson returned to the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge in 1995 following a seven-year spell with PA Consulting Group's Technology Division. He was appointed director of the Engineering Design Centre in 1997 and a Full Professor in 2004. He has been directly involved in the teaching of design at all levels of the undergraduate course.

At PA John was Manager of the Advanced Process Group where he gained wide experience of product development with a particular focus on the design of medical equipment and high-integrity systems, where clients required a risk-based systems approach to design to ensure timely delivery of safe systems.

His research interests are in the general area of engineering design, particularly the development of design methodologies to address specific design issues, for example, healthcare design, inclusive design, process management, change management and automotive design. As well as publishing over 800 papers, he has written and edited a number of books on medical equipment design, inclusive design and process management.

John is leading a team with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Academy of Medical Sciences to develop Engineering Better Care, a systems approach to health and care redesign and improvement, and an accompanying toolkit for Improving Improvement. He has also recently been appointed Professor of Healthcare Systems in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft.