Dr Bell is a Research Officer in the Weed Research Unit of the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), based in Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. She joined the DPI in 2022 to conduct research on environmental DNA of weeds. Prior to that, she was a lecturer in plant ecology at the University of Western Australia, joint appointment with CSIRO Health & Biosecurity from 2016-2021. Dr Bell’s research uses methods from environmental DNA, genetics/genomics, and biogeography to investigate questions in biosecurity, invasion biology, plant-animal interactions and plant evolution.