Carl Parker earned his B.A. from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the faculty at Caltech in 1981.

Research in the Parker lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms cells use to respond to physiological stress such as heat shock. He and his collaborators are interested in understanding how heat, for example, is transduced into a massive transcriptional activation response that results in the synthesis of heat shock proteins.