Prof. Murphy has been a lecturer in UCD since 2001 (senior lecturer, 2014; professor, 2017), and teaches in the undergraduate programme in microbiology, and the postgraduate MSc in biotechnology, and biotechnology and business. He is currently the programme director for the masters degrees in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science. Cormac established a research group to investigate the biotransformation of xenobiotic compounds in microorganisms, with a particular focus on organofluorine compounds and drugs. He has acquired external grant funding from a range of sources (European Union, Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council) and has supervised 19 PhD students to completion. He has published over 75 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. From 2011-2013 Cormac was the Vice-Principal for Research and Innovation in the UCD College of Science. He is a funded investigator in BiOrbic investigating the biosynthesis of semi-synthetic lipopeptides.