Rónadh Cox

Cox is from Ireland. She says she became interested in geology as a teenager, because her geography teacher "delighted in the natural world,". She attended University College Dublin for her undergraduate degree, where she majored in geology. After earning her bachelor's degree, Cox moved to BP, where she worked as a geological assistant. She moved to the United States for her graduate research, joining Stanford University as a doctoral student. After earning her doctorate, Cox was appointed to the Rand Afrikaans University as a postdoctoral researcher. She spent two years in South Africa before returning to North America.

Cox joined the faculty at Williams College in 1996, and was eventually promoted to Edward Brust Professor of Geology and Mineralogy. In 2019 she was concurrently appointed a Visiting Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at UCD.

Cox's research considers how storm waves move boulders. She has studied the impact of strong storms (some equivalent to category 3 hurricanes) on Ireland's west coast, with focus on the Aran Islands. In particular, she showed that 2013-14 Atlantic winter storms in Europe moved numerous hundred-tonne boulders, so-called 'megagravel' the largest ever dislocated by the waves of storms. Her team also demonstrated formation of new boulders quarried from bedrock by wave action, well above sea level. In 2020, she was awarded a new grant from the National Science Foundation to study the dynamic evolution of boulder beaches.

From 2012 to 2016, Cox served as editor of the journal Geology, and went on to serve on the editorial board.

Whilst a doctoral student in California, Cox met her husband, Mark Brandriss.