Mercer received her PhD in zoology in 1979 from the University of Otago. Her thesis Visceral innervation in molluscs was concerned with molluscs.[5]
Academic career
She has been an emeritus professor at the University of Otago since 2018.[6] Her research interests span from understanding the brain[7][8] and behaviour of honey bees, development genetics, as well as learning and memory.[9][10][11]
She has repeatedly made headlines in the popular press with her studies of the effects of chemicals on bees.[12][13][14] She was nicknamed the "Queen of all pheromones" by Otago Daily Times for her work in discovering that exposing a young bee to the pheromone of a queen bee actually alters the composition of the young bee's brain.[15] She has also published on the varroa mite a problematic parasite of honeybees.[16][17]
Daniel Flanagan; Alison R. Mercer (January 1989). "An atlas and 3-D reconstruction of the antennal lobes in the worker honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae)". Arthropod Structure & Development. 18 (2–3): 145–159. doi:10.1016/0020-7322(89)90023-8. ISSN1467-8039.
^Elodie Urlacher; Coline Monchanin; Coraline Rivière; Freddie-Jeanne Richard; Christie Lombardi; Sue Michelsen-Heath; Kimberly J Hageman; Alison R. Mercer (12 February 2016). "Measurements of Chlorpyrifos Levels in Forager Bees and Comparison with Levels that Disrupt Honey Bee Odor-Mediated Learning Under Laboratory Conditions". Journal of Chemical Ecology. 42 (2): 127–138. doi:10.1007/S10886-016-0672-4. ISSN0098-0331. PMID26872472.
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