Dr Rachel Glover

Dr Rachel Glover received this prestigious title for her expertise in molecular ecology, biosurveillance, bioinformatics and genomics.

She is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Taxa Genomics, a Manx company that provides DNA testing services to the environmental and veterinary industry. Her recent work includes designing a genetic health screen that can identify inherited diseases in dogs.

By her own admission, she was ‘not the most committed A-Level student’ but when she studied her degree in Microbiology at the University of Aberdeen, she discovered her passion, and that has led to her very successful career to date. That passion has also grown into a commitment to foster science education on the island.

Her undergraduate degree was followed by a Masters and a PhD in Computational Biology and before returning to the island in 2017, she worked at the UK Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) for 12 years. There, she was the lead computational biologist and was instrumental in the introduction of DNA barcoding and metabarcoding methods to routine operational use within DEFRA.

Recently, during the covid-19 outbreak, Rachel was involved in the creation of the testing centre, which played a vital part in the monitoring and combatting of the virus.

In her free time, Rachel is also a competitive target rifle shooter and has represented the Isle of Man at two Commonwealth Games as well as competing for Great Britain.