Dr. Cox conducts research in population ecology and epidemiology in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Most of her recent research has focused on the emergence and spread of diseases or parasites. To test novel hypotheses she uses interdisciplinary approaches including field data collection, mathematical modelling and collation of expert opinion. In addition to her position at UPEI she is a research scientist with Operation Wallacea and has led biodiversity conservation research in Honduras, Indonesia and South Africa.

Recent aquaculture projects at UPEI include:

• The impact of the invasive green crab on the susceptibility of eelgrass to wasting disease in Prince Edward Island
• The influence of ocean acidification on shellfish in western Canada.
• The population dynamics of sea lice on wild and farmed fish: the influence of mate limitation and aggregation.

Projects related to the risk of disease emergence include:

• Development of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis tools that can be used to prioritise the diseases that are most likely to emerge in Canada in response to climate change.
• Use of a Bayesian Belief Networks to determine how management practices impact disease emergence on swine farms across Canada.

Education

PhD on the ecology and population dynamics of the red grouse and the nematode parasite Trichostrongylus tenuis (University of Durham, UK).

MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare with a thesis on the ectoparasites of the European Badger, (University of Edinburgh and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford, UK).

BSc in Biology (University of Durham, UK)