Alea Hanley is a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. She graduated
from the University of California, San Diego with her bachelor’s in biology in 2024 and master’s in biology in 2025. Her master’s research mainly focused on minimally misfolded proteins and since graduating she has worked as an Associate Cell Biologist in the quality control department of a biotech company. In her PhD research she plans to study nonhuman primate gut microbiomes to combine her passions for wildlife and microbiology. Her current career goals are to become a microbiology professor.
