Rate My Professor Peter Cormack

Professor Peter Cormack is Professor of Polymer Chemistry and Head of Materials and Computational Chemistry in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Strathclyde. He graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BSc in Chemistry with First Class Honours in 1992 and obtained his PhD in Polymer Chemistry there in 1996 under the supervision of Professor David C. Sherrington and Dr Barry D. Moore. His doctoral research focused on the design and solid-phase synthesis of monodisperse liquid crystalline peptides and the synthesis of thermotropic polypeptides via anionic ring-opening polymerisation of mesogenic N-carboxyanhydrides. After his PhD, he served as Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge's Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis in 1996, working on hyperbranched vinyl polymers, and then at Lund University, Sweden, from 1997 as Post-Doctoral Fellow and later Vice-Director of Research in the Center for Molecular Imprinting and Molecular Recognition.

In 1998, Cormack returned to the University of Strathclyde as ICI-sponsored Lecturer in Polymer Chemistry, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 2004, Reader in 2007, and Professor of Polymer Chemistry in 2009. He has held key roles including Deputy Head of Department (2016-2017), Associate Dean for International Research in the Faculty of Science (2015-2018), Scientist in Residence at the Centre for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures in Montréal (2008), and Visiting Professorships in Canada (2008), Malaysia (2011), and Poland (2015). Awards include the RSC/SCI Macro Group UK Young Researchers' Medal (2005) and Gold Medal at the 36th International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX 2025). His research interests encompass synthetic polymer chemistry and materials science, emphasizing the design, synthesis, and applications of functional organic polymers, including molecularly imprinted polymers, microporous solids, functionalised polymer microspheres, branched polymers, and self-assembling systems for chemical separations, bioanalysis, environmental and forensic analysis, ion-exchange, sensors, proteomics, and diagnostics. Notable publications are 'A facile route for the chemical functionalisation of polydivinylbenzenes and the application of amphoteric polydivinylbenzene microspheres...' (Polymer Chemistry, 2025), 'Core-shell polymer microspheres with strong cation-exchange character for the extraction of basic pharmaceuticals...' (Advances in Sample Preparation, 2024), 'Donor-acceptor Stenhouse adduct functionalised polymer microspheres' (Polymer Chemistry, 2023), and 'Hypercrosslinked polymer microspheres decorated with anion- and cation-exchange groups...' (Journal of Chromatography A, 2022).