Alice received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Bristol. In the latter years of her degree she became fascinated by how organic chemistry and stable isotopes could be combined to probe environmental processes. This led her to pursue a Ph.D., in collaboration with Wessex Water, the goal of which was to help mitigate nitrogen fertiliser pollution problems in drinking water supplies. After completing her Ph.D., Alice pursued postdoctoral research at Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, where she was part of a NERC-funded project investigating nitrogen cycling and gaseous nitrogen losses from sheep urine patches on upland soils.