Associate Professor Cormac Corr holds a degree in Applied Physics and a PhD titled "A study of instabilities in electronegative rf-driven discharges" from Queens University Belfast (Belfast, Northern Ireland).  After his PhD, Cormac spent three years working at the Laboratory of Plasma Physics, Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Since 2006, he has worked at the ANU in the Research School of Physics. 

Cormac has attracted ~$6m in funding, including an ARC Future Fellowship, government grants, and ~ $1.2 million industry funding. In total he has supervised over 50 students in research projects, across physics and engineering. In 2014, Cormac received two teaching awards. The first was an individual College of Science award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. The second was a team award for the Physics Project Market Day. He was awarded a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2018. In 2022, Cormac was awarded the Directors Award for “Continuous and outstanding contribution to teaching at all levels and creating such a positive teaching environment”. Cormac conveves and teaches the largest undergraduate physics course at ANU (PHYS1101).

Cormac has undertaken a wide variety of laboratory plasma research with particular emphasis on combined experimental/modelling studies. Cormac’s research pursuit is into fields related to plasma-modified materials with a focus on extreme materials for space and nuclear applications, nanostructured materials for energy, treatment of harmful gases and sterilization. He founded a new research group in 2011 following success in the ARC Future Fellowship Scheme.

BSc (Honours), PhD

• High pressure Plasma Torch
• Material processing 
• Plasma-surface interactions
• Plasma source development
• Plasma modeling
• Plasma diagnostics (Optical emission spectroscopy, Probes, laser based)