When her husband took the post of Professor of Physics at Raffles College in Singapore, Elizabeth Alexander travelled there and began a study into the effects of weathering in the tropics. She was particularly interested in erosion and how, under certain circumstances, new rock seemed to be forming at unexpectedly high speed.[6] She thus began experiments, burying samples in order to compare them with lab controls later. Whilst in Singapore, the Alexanders also had three children, William in 1937, Mary in 1939 and Bernice in 1941.[2]