Dr David Cook is a Research Scientist with CSIRO Entomology's Invasion Risk Ecology team. He currently manages the Enhanced Risk Analysis Tools project within the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for National Plant Biosecurity's Preparedness program. His research is aimed at protecting Australia from incursions of exotic pest species through risk identification and assessment.

Dr Cook is from the Great Southern Region of Western Australia. Between 1996 and 2003 he worked as a Regional Economist for the Western Australian Department of Agriculture in Bunbury where he worked almost exclusively on invasive species issues. Dr Cook worked as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Wye campus of the Imperial College, London, United Kingdom, 2003-04.

In 2005 Dr Cook moved to Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, to take up a Research Economist position with CSIRO Entomology, and an adjunct appointment with the School of Resources, Environment and Society at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra.

Dr Cook's research interests centre around biosecurity issues. Much of his work has involved invasive species affecting agricultural industries, ranging from vertebrates, invertebrates, weeds, to pathogens, fungi, as well as some aquatic and marine species. He has completed economic analyses on many different incursion responses, and on-going management strategies for naturalised species of regional, State and national significance.

He has also been involved in import risk assessments investigating the social welfare implications of sanitary and phytosanitary measures imposed on imported products, comparing the traditional gains from trade and the increase in expected damage from exotic species capable of utilising the trade link as an entry pathway.