Geoffrey Coates, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University, has been selected by Technology Review magazine as one of 100 young innovators under the age of 35 "who exemplify the spirit of innovation in science, technology, business and the arts."

The magazine, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in its November/December issue with a special section on "the most remarkable group of innovators under 35 ever assembled."

This group of young people is better positioned than anyone else to see the future of technology, the magazine says. In the area of plastics, it says, "Coates is designing improved polymers by trying to understand how a catalyst affects a polymer's architecture -- and hence its properties. The goal is to be able to make the catalyst structure that leads to just the polymer properties you want."

A major theme of Coates' research efforts is the synthesis of polymers using biorenewable resources, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and biologically synthesized compounds. Coates, who is 33, has found a seemingly efficient way to copy photosynthesis, nature's efficient way of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and turning it into both monomers and polymers in the form of sugars and polysaccharides. The process appears to be economical and to have commercial possibilities. Coates also has made recent breakthroughs in the synthesis of biodegradable polymers from lactic acid, a nontoxic compound that can be easily made from corn and potatoes.

Coates recently received a four-year, $328,000 Faculty Early Career Development Program grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research into the development of new catalysts for synthesizing biodegradable polymers from CO2.

As part of his proposal, Coates has developed an integrated teaching and research plan in polymer chemistry, as well as educational outreach projects involving K-12 students and industrial scientists through the NSF-supported Cornell Center for Materials Research.

Coates earned a doctoral degree in organic chemistry from Stanford University in 1994. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1997 after postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology.