Dr Lal has an undergraduate degree in Zoology and then went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Wildlife Management in New Zealand and a Master’s degree in Wildlife Science in India, where she spent 6 months chasing green turtles in the Indian Ocean. Interviewing villagers living on the edge of India’s protected Tiger Reserves made her start thinking about disease transmission between wild animals, livestock and humans who live in close proximity to animals. This led to a PhD at the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago (New Zealand), graduating in 2014. Dr Lal then moved across the ditch to work at the ANU as a postdoctoral fellow with the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health working with the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Modelling group and now as a Research Fellow in the Environment, Climate and Health group.