The reverse atom transfer radical polymerization (RATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MAA) was successfully carried out under pulsed microwave irradiation (PMI) at 69 degreesC with N,N-dimethylformamide as a solvent and with azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN)/CuBr2/tetramethylethylenediamine as an initiation system. PMI resulted in a significant increase in the polymerization rate of RATRP. A 10.5% conversion for a polymer with a number-average molecular weight of 34,500 and a polydispersity index of 1.23 was obtained under PMI with a mean power of 4.5 W in only 52 min, but 103 min was needed under a conventional heating process (CH) to reach a 8.3% conversion under identical conditions. At different [MMA](0)/[AIBN](0) molar ratios, the apparent rate constant of polymerization under PMI was 1.5-2.3 times larger than that under CH.