 Cooks received a bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the University of Natal in South Africa in 1961 and 1963, respectively.He received a Ph.D. from the University of Natal in 1965 and a second Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1967.Research in Cooks' laboratory (the Aston Laboratory) has contributed to a diverse assortment of areas within mass spectrometry, ranging from fundamental research to instrument and method development to applications.