[2] She completed her PhD under the mentorship of Professors Jennifer Jarvis and Gideon Louw where her dissertation addressed many aspects of the physiological ecology of rodents living in arid environments.

[2] Thereafter, Rochelle undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia where she studied several aspects of the environmental physiology of red and eastern grey kangaroos under the guidance of  Prof. Terence Dawson.

In this regard, she has worked with over 168 different species including desert rodents in Namibia and Kenya, tenrecs in Madagascar, mole-rats, golden moles, and bats in South Africa as well as marsupials in Australia.

[5][6] Not only does she currently maintain the world’s largest captive colony, but over the years she has provided thousands of animals to numerous laboratories across the globe to expand their use in various fields of biomedical research.

[11] Her lab has investigated the role of the immune system and numerous aspects of proteostasis in the extraordinary resilience of naked mole-rats against many forms of stress and disease including UV radiation, hypoxia, carcinogen, and chemotherapy exposure.