John C. Zarnecki (born 6 November 1949 in Finchley, Middlesex, England) is an English space science professor and researcher. Since 2000, he has worked at the Open University, having previously been a professor and researcher at the University of Kent. He 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 will become President of the RAS in May 2016, having been Vice-President from 2009 to 2011 and voted President Elect for the year from May 2015.