Simon Cocks

Profile:

Simon is a Research Assistant in Regenerative Economies and Agricultural Systems, working alongside Dr Caitlin McElroy and Dr Michael Clark. Simon’s research applies a whole-systems approach to understanding and improving complex agricultural systems in the Global South, with a particular focus on the tea industry in Kenya and the palm oil industry in Malaysia.

As part of the Regenerative Economy & Living Library (RELL) project, Simon is developing a conceptual model to examine how social, economic, and environmental dynamics have shaped Kenya’s tea sector over time. His work combines production and trade data with interviews across the tea supply chain to understand system feedbacks, and assess how potential interventions may influence future outcomes.

Alongside this research, Simon is leading the development of the website for the RELL project, an open and interactive platform designed to support the dissemination of research on the transition to more regenerative economies, across various agricultural commodities, and extractive industries.

Simon is a member of the Smith School’s Sustainable Food Solutions Programme and the Oxford Martin School’s Future of Food Network. Previous work has included research with Dr James Painter on climate communications, focusing on climate misinformation in UK print media. This research has explored topics including net zero policies, electric vehicles, and climate denialism.

Before joining the Smith School, Simon worked as a Research Assistant in climate modelling with Professor Myles Allen in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Simon holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford, where his research examined emissions and land-use metrics for UK policy, and a BSc in Geoscience from Durham University, including research on isotope dating of lunar magmatic rocks.