Cormac O’Rafferty is graduate of University College Dublin (BSc Hons) and Trinity College Dublin (Phd) in Ireland. A solid-state physicist by training, he was a Marie Curie EU Research Fellow at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He is now a tenured lecturer in physics at Waterford Institute of Technology in Waterford, Ireland. As well as standard physics courses, classes taught include elementary courses in the ideas of cosmology, particle physics and climate science for non-scientists. Cormac was a Visiting Research Fellow with the Program on Science, Technology and Society (STS) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2010-11.

Cormac writes regularly on science in newspapers (The Irish Times) and magazines (Physics World, Spin Science Magazine) and is the author of the well-known science blog ANTIMATTER. He is a former Chair of the RAW public science debates at Science Gallery Dublin and is currently a science ambassador for Discover Science and Engineering, Ireland’s national science promotion programme. As a science ambassador, he is a frequent participant in scientific debates in the Irish media and is much in demand as a public science presenter.

Cormac is the youngest son of the late Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh, the renowned Irish particle physicist.