Greta Frankham

Dr Greta Frankham is a conservation geneticist and wildlife forensic scientist at the Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics (ACWG) at the Australian Museum Research Institute.

Prior to joining the ACWG, Greta's academic research focused on better understanding the population genetics and molecular evolution of threatened Australian marsupial species to aid in conservation management of these species. Since joining the ACWG in 2011, Greta has continued to work in this area, carrying out and contributing to research on a range of Australian species including; long nosed potoroos, eastern pygmy possums, long nosed bandicoots, koalas (as part of the Koala Genome Consortium), echidnas, red-tail black cockatoos and shingleback lizards.

Dr Frankham also used this research background to move into the field of DNA-based wildlife forensics and helped establish the ACWG as the first ISO17025 accredited DNA-based wildlife forensics lab in Australia.

Dr Frankham now oversees wildlife forensic casework carried out by the ACWG for a wide range of state and federal agencies as well as other animal industries with compliance obligations and has provided expert witness evidence for court proceedings resulting from these cases.

Greta also supervises several PhD and Honours students researching either the conservation genetics of Australian species or the development of new wildlife forensic methods.