[2] During World War I, Cook worked at the National Bureau of Standards, designing airfoils.
[2] Cook edited the Journal of Heredity, published by the American Genetic Association, from 1922 to 1962.
[2] Cook was a lecturer in medical genetics and biology at George Washington University, and director, then president (from 1959 to 1968), of the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C.[1][3] Cook was a member of the American Eugenics Society, the Population Association of America, and the Cosmos Club.
Although Cook utilized research in genetics and demography to advance the American eugenics movement, he did not actually contribute to the production of knowledge in those fields.
[4] In 1955, Cook received an award from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation for his "outstanding contribution to wider understanding of the world population problem.