Rhiannon Alder completed a Bachelor of Forensic Science (Hons) in Applied Chemistry at the University of Technology Sydney in 2016. She is now a PhD candidate in the area of illicit drug detection under Professor Shanlin Fu. Her research focuses on using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the identification and quantification of illicit drugs in forensic samples. She is also working to develop a substrate suitable for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of illicit drugs and comparing the developed substrates to commercially available substrates.