John Carver undertook his undergraduate (Honours) degree in Chemistry at the University of Adelaide. In 1983, he was awarded his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Australian National University and subsequently undertook post-doctoral studies in Biochemistry at the Universities of Oxford and Adelaide. In 1988, John took up a position as Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Wollongong where he subsequently became an Associate Professor. In early 2004, he returned to the University of Adelaide as Professor of Chemistry and Head of the School of Chemistry & Physics. In 2008, he became the Deputy Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and, for all of 2009, he was also Head of the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science. From July 2013 to February 2019, John was Director of the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University. After this until the end of 2020, he was a Professor of Chemistry. Since then, he has been an Emeritus Professor in the Research School of Chemistry.