Professor Michelle Coote completed a B.Sc. (Hons) in Industrial Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in 1995. During her degree she spent 15 months working in the chemical industry, "but it made me realise that my real interest was in a career in pure chemical research. So, I went back to university and ended up graduating in 1995 with the university medal." Graduating in 2000 with a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from UNSW, Coote took out major awards including the Cornforth Medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and the prize for young scientists from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for her PhD thesis The origin of the penultimate unit effect in free-radical copolymerisation.
Coote left Australia for the UK in September 1999 to take up a Post Doctoral Research Role in polymer physics focusing on neutron reflectivity within the Polymer Interdisciplinary Research Centre at The University of Durham.