I am from the United Kingdom, where I completed my bachelor’s degree at Cardiff University in Genetics. During which I spent a year working on a specific project in the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland WildGenes laboratory based at Edinburgh Zoo. My project in Edinburgh was conservation genetics of two ungulate species, the red-fronted gazelle (Eudorcas rufifrons) and the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis). My thesis title for my bachelor’s was “Genetic Variation of the Invasive Himalayan Balsam” which used microsatellite markers to look at the genetic variation within and between three Welsh populations of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera).

My PhD project with the Università degli Studi di Ferrara and affiliated with Fondazione Edmund Mach focuses on genomic variation of three species of Alpine grouse: the black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix), rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) and western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus). I will be using Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA to look at the variation in these three species across the Italian Alps.

My research interests include conservation genetics of endangered species, population genetics and genome sequencing, I am also passionate about scientific communication.

PhD project: Patterns of genomic variation in three species of Alpine grouse: conservation and management using SNP's

Supervisors: Dr. Barbara Crestanello, Dr. Heidi C. Hauffe

Email: alice.fraser@fmach.it