Professor Coates received his BS in Chemistry from Yale University in 1960 and his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley in 1964. After postdoctoral research at Stanford University, he joined the faculty at Illinois. His major research interests lay in synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry, natural products, and biosynthesis, focusing on the chemistry and biochemistry of isoprenoid compounds. His research group primarily engaged in synthesis and investigation of novel carbocyclic structures, isotope labeling for elucidation of stereochemistry, and inhibitors of key enzymes on the isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway.