He conducted his doctoral research at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the Synthetic Fuels program.

Before joining New England Bioassay in 1991, Dr. Cooney was employed as a Senior Research Scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus , OH and at Battelle Ocean Sciences in Duxbury , MA .

Dr. Cooney is responsible for the overall administrative management of NEB , technical direction, project management, and client interaction. For more than 30 years, Dr. Cooney has been actively involved in toxicological and water quality-related research directed at solving water pollution problems. Dr. Cooney interacts regularly with professionals in aquatic toxicology and other disciplines and is frequently an invited speaker at seminars and workshops on current water quality issues. Dr. Cooney has participated in numerous research projects aimed at characterizing and identifying the toxic components of municipal and industrial discharges.