As a researcher, Mark made pioneering contributions in the field of liquid crystal elastomers: materials with cross-linked polymer chains that possess a combination of liquid and crystal properties, and have applications as artificial muscles and in microrobotics. He received numerous awards for his work, including the Maxwell Medal and Prize and the Bragg Medal of the Institute of Physics, the EPS Europhysics Prize of the European Physical Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2002, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012.