Dr. Coates was educated and started his career in the UK. His first position was as an analytical chemist working for Castrol Oil Company. He graduated with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and obtained his PhD in analytical chemistry at Brunel University with an initial focus on Raman Spectroscopy. He moved to the USA in 1978.

Overall, Dr Coates has 50 years of industrial experience. During this time he has authored over 120 publications in the form of original papers, articles, patents and book chapters. He helped set up Spectroscopy magazine working with the original editorial staff, and has edited or co-edited several journals. After working as a Senior Staff Scientist at Perkin Elmer, Dr. Coates accepted positions at Spectra-Tech (Stamford, CT) and then at Nicolet Instruments (Madison, WI), and eventually returning to a position at PerkinElmer’s Real-Time Systems Division (Wilton, CT), a joint-venture with Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI). In 1996 Dr Coates left the corporate world and formed his own company, Coates Consulting.

Since 1996 he has built Coates Consulting LLC, into a networked consultancy focused on applied and industrial instrumentation, optical spectroscopy and analytical instruments and sensors for dedicated applications. His main focus in the past 20 years has been on instrument miniaturization and spectral sensors. Dr Coates has conceived and has been involved in the development of more than 90 different instrument and sensor products. This includes working with major corporations in key industry sectors; environmental, industrial, food and beverage, aerospace, computer technology and medical. He was co-founder of two sensor-based businesses featuring products based on miniaturization; Sentelligence and microSpectral Sensors. In addition, Dr Coates also held positions at OnSite Analysis, Inc. (now Spectro Scientific, Inc.) a company that markets field-based oil analyzers and as the Interim Director of MCEC (Measurement and Control Engineering Center) at the University of Tennessee.