Early Life and Education
Coates was born the son of J. H. Coates and B. L. Lee and grew up in Possum Brush (near Taree) in New South Wales, Australia. Before university he spent a summer working for BHP Billiton in Newcastle, New South Wales, though he was not successful in gaining a university scholarship with the company. Coates attended Australian National University on scholarship as one of the first undergraduates, from which he gained a B.Sc. degree. He then moved to France, doing further study at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, before moving again to England.
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