Geoffrey W. Coates


Geoffrey "Geoff" William Coates is an American chemist and the Tisch University Professor in the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University.

Early life and education

Coates was born in 1966 in Evansville, Indiana. He received a B.A. degree in chemistry from Wabash College in 1989. He entered graduate school at Stanford University where he worked with Robert M. Waymouth as a Hertz Fellow. His thesis work investigated the stereoselectivity of metallocene-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts. He was awarded a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1994. Coates then was a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology. At Caltech, Coates worked on ring-closing metathesis reactions to functionalize polyolefins, and supramolecular phenyl-perfluorophenyl pi-stacking interactions.

Independent career

In 1997, Coates joined the faculty of Cornell University. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001, and to Professor in 2002. He was appointed to the first Tisch University Professorship in 2008.

Selected honors and professional activities

Coates has received numerous awards for his work in organometallic and polymer chemistry.

Entrepreneurship and affiliations

Coates is the scientific cofounder of Novomer, Ecolectro, Intermix Performance Materials, and Imperion Coatings. Novomer was acquired by Danimer Scientific in 2021. Coates is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of KensaGroup and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation. He is a Director of the Board of the Mitsubishi Chemical Group. Coates was an associate editor of the journal Macromolecules from 2008 to 2021, and is now an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.