University of Strathclyde Glasgow

The Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow is one of the larger chemistry research schools in the UK. Research topics range from catalysis and synthesis through to materials and computational chemistry. Research is well-supported by the UK Government, industry, the EC and charitable foundations, and extensive networks of national and international collaborations exist on all fields. In the most recent, UK-wide research assessment exercise, close to 90% of the research outputs were rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. In The Guardian Best UK University 2026 Rankings, PAC was rated as the #1 Chemistry Department in the UK. 

Peter Cormack is Professor of Polymer Chemistry and Head of Materials and Computational Chemistry in PAC. He is a Scotsman with a passion for all things polymeric. The research interests of the Cormack Group lie in the areas of synthetic polymer chemistry and materials science, with special emphasis on the design, synthesis, and applications of functional organic polymers (including molecularly imprinted polymers [MIPs]). In MIPrecise, the primary role of the Cormack Group is to design, synthesize, and characterize novel organic polymers that have affinity and selectivity for cancer biomarkers and to work collaboratively with MIPrecise partners on the exploitation of the polymers that are developed.