Cox holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in Acoustics. He entered the field of acoustics because of an interest in music and his science background. He has been an academic in Acoustics Department at the University of Salford since 1995 and currently holds the position of Professor of Acoustic Engineering. Cox is fascinated by room acoustics, and how places can be designed for intelligible speech and beautiful music. His acoustic designs can be found in rooms worldwide and he has co-authored a research book on absorbers and diffusers which is now in its second edition. He was an associate editor for an international journal of acoustics. He uses both qualitative methods and quantitative methods to explore responses to sounds from products, in outdoor spaces and various sound types. He was director of ‘A Noisy Future?’, an ‘Ideas Factory’ research programme run by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He was award the Institute of Acoustics's Tyndall Medal in 2004.
Since the 1990s, Cox has been communicating acoustic engineering to the public working on projects worth over £1 million. He was given the Institute of Acoustics award for promoting acoustics to the public in 2009. He was a finalist at Famelab, a ‘Pop Idol’-style competition to find science communicators for television. He has been involved in projects to produce teaching resources for pupils, the last having reached more than a quarter of a million pupils. He has developed and presented science shows seen by 17,000 pupils, including appearances in London at the Royal Albert Hall, the Purcell Rooms at the South Bank Centre and the Royal Institution. At one stage, he held the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest whoopee cushion, based on a stage prop used at the "Beautiful Music – Horrible Sounds" show. He set the Guinness World Record for the 'Longest echo' in the Inchindown oil tanks. He has gained worldwide news coverage for stories such as "Does a duck quack echo?" and "The Worst Sound in the World". He has also investigated the World's scariest scream. In addition, he has appeared in features on BBC1, Teachers TV, Discovery and National Geographic channels, and as an expert in news items on a variety of television and radio channels.
