She completed a PhD in Mathematical Biology at Massey University in New Zealand followed by postdoctoral studies at the Ruhr Universität Bochum (Germany) and in the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution (New Zealand). She moved to the University of Tasmania in 2010. From 2011 she held an Australian Research Council funded Future Fellowship. Since beginning her PhD she has enjoyed the challenge of working with biologists in trying to translate the problems they face into the language of mathematics. Biology is awash with data since the development of DNA sequencing technology and this has opened up a range of fascinating research questions that require a combination of skills from mathematics, biology and computer science.