Nancy Cox (virologist)

Chief of the Influenza Branch for the National Center for Infectious Diseases, Nancy Cox, Ph.D., at the podium during a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) press briefing.

Nancy Cox (born 1949) is an American virologist who works with influenza and bird flu viruses for the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Nancy Cox is a native of Iowa who was educated at Iowa State University and Darwin College, Cambridge, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

Nancy Cox, PhD, started working on influenza at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1976. She retired in December 2014, after 38 years and 278 publications. Over the course of her career, Cox helped transform the surveillance and science of influenza viruses and vaccines worldwide. At CDC, she set the standards for measuring immune response in infected and vaccinated people, and also led the agency to be the global reference center for antiviral resistance and for measuring transmission of influenza viruses in animal models. As director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for the Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza at CDC, Cox worked closely with public health officials from Russia, Vietnam and China, helping to transform their capabilities in influenza virology and surveillance. Her work with WHO also led to significant changes in the methods, reporting, interpretation and policy development for selecting vaccine viruses for use in annual influenza vaccine production.

Cox has been the recipient of 10 CDC recognition awards, seven Nakano Awards, four Shepard Awards, The Lancet’s “Paper of the Year,” Time Magazine’s “The Time 100: People Who Shape Our World,” Service to America Award, CDC’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the US Government Federal Employee of the Year award.