He grew up in Columbia, SC and attended Brennen Elementary School, Crayton Junior High School and A.C. Flora High School.  He attended the University of South Carolina from 1970-74; enrolled in the physics department for graduate studies, but left to work for one year at a J.P. Stevens laboratory near Greenville, SC.  During that year, he began reading papers in statistical thermodynamics and corresponding with Professor Adolph Beyerlein at nearby Clemson University.  He then returned to graduate studies with Prof. Beyerlein at Clemson University, where he obtained his M.S. degree in 1979.  He moved to Johns Hopkins University in the summer of 1979 and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from there in 1983, studying with Professor Paul Dagdigian.  He met Lo-An Thi Nguyen at a tea party for entering graduate students at Johns Hopkins, and married her on December 3, 1983. 

John was appointed to a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Academy of Sciences, which he held from 1983-85 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Between 1985 and 1992 John and Lo-An lived in Stony Brook, NY.  Their children are Katherine Elizabeth Cox and Diana Juliet Cox.  The family lives in Vienna, VA.

His professional career was at Grumman Corporation Research Center (Bethpage, NY and Herndon, VA from 1985-1995); Lockheed Martin Corporation (Chantilly, VA from 1995-2003); and The Aerospace Corporation (Chantilly, VA from 2003-16).  During his career at Aerospace Corporation, he conceived of, formed and managed the Advanced Sensor Engineering Department.  He retired from Aerospace Corporation in December 2016, but returned as a consultant in 2017. 


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