After double master's degrees in computer science and business administration at the
University of Hamburg, Germany, he received his doctorate in
operations research there in 1980. In 1981 he joined the Stern School of Management at
New York University as an assistant professor, where he received an early promotion to associate professor in 1983, and early tenure in 1985. In 1986 he returned to Germany as a full professor of dialog-oriented systems at the University of Passau, from where he moved to
RWTH Aachen University as Professor of Information Systems in 1991. From 1992-2000, he served as chairman of Aachen's Computer Science department. From January 2000, he additionally became executive director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT in Sankt Augustin near Bonn, Germany. In 2008, its international master programs in media informatics, life science informatics, and autonomous systems were augmented by a dedicated B-IT Research School of doctoral training, co-funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Jarke died on 21 March 2024, at the age of 71. ==Work==