Anna is a Scientia Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at UNSW. She completed her PhD in Applied Physics at Harvard University and a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship in Astrobiology. She and her team work on how the processes of self-assembly can be harnessed to help aid the transition between chemistry and biology, using a soft matter perspective to understand how life started on Earth. Their systems of interest include lipid vesicles, bilayer membranes, protocells, and liquid-liquid phase-separated droplets. Anna is also Assistant Director for the Australian Centre of Astrobiology.