Assistant Professor
Department: Chemistry & Geochemistry
University System: Montana Tech - Butte
Website(s): https://mtechlegend.weebly.com/
Professional Summary:
Dr. Alysia Cox joined the Chemistry and Geochemistry Department in the fall of 2015. She grew up in Michigan and moved to Arizona State University (ASU) on a National Merit Scholarship where she received her B.S. summa cum laude in the Geological Sciences with minors in Biology and German from the Barrett Honors College. Her honors thesis investigated the limits of microbial photosynthesis in hot spring ecosystems. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2011. Her dissertation researched the interactions of heavy metals with marine cyanobacteria, involving trace metal analysis, metal uptake, and proteomic studies. After postdoctoral work at ASU and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Dr. Cox started the Laboratory Exploring Geobiochemical Engineering and Natural Dynamics (LEGEND) at Tech. Her research combines geochemistry with biochemistry to determine active mechanisms of chemical reactions with wide application to the environment. Her integration of proteomic techniques and geochemical context in environmental samples determines what is actively happening in the environment at a given time and place under the set of conditions present, as well as providing a framework for how life has evolved in coordination with Earth in the past.