He entered graduate school at Stanford University where he worked with Robert M. Waymouth as a Hertz Fellow.
[4] His thesis work investigated the stereoselectivity of metallocene-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts.
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,[8] and supramolecular phenyl-perfluorophenyl pi-stacking interactions.
Coates has received numerous awards for his work in organometallic and polymer chemistry.