Jessica Alves completed her honours studies with Prof Nikhil Medhekar at Monash University in 2017. She investigated two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks with the potential to host topological electronic states, using density functional theory (DFT). This was part of FLEET’s Enabling technology A: Atomically-thin materials. Later, Jessica finished her PhD on the development of materials for laser lithography at the Queensland University of Technology in 2021. After which, she started a postdoctoral fellowship at UNSW.