Alison Mercer
New Zealand zoologist
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Mercer received her PhD in zoology in 1979 from the University of Otago. Her thesis Visceral innervation in molluscs was concerned with molluscs.
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Academic career
She has been an emeritus professor at the University of Otago since 2018. Her research interests span from understanding the brain and behaviour of honey bees, development genetics, as well as learning and memory.
She has repeatedly made headlines in the popular press with her studies of the effects of chemicals on bees. 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. She has also published on the varroa mite a problematic parasite of honeybees.