Alex grew up in Orange, NSW and completed his bachelors and masters at Macquarie University. He conducted research into landscape genetic patterns of a range expanding damselfly. After graduating, he worked for the NSW government Saving our Species program, gaining invaluable experience writing conservation strategies and analysing monitoring data for threatened species.  He was wooed back into research with the chance to work on the beautiful Tiwi Islands, pursuing interesting genetic questions for threatened species conservation. He is supervised by Prof. Sam Banks, Dr Teigan Cremona, Dr Hugh Davies, A/Prof. Brett Murphy, Prof. Geoff Cary, and Dr Graeme Gillespie.