Alison Small is a principal research scientist at the CSIRO McMaster Laboratory in Armidale, NSW, leading livestock welfare research in a number of areas including pain mitigation for livestock; alternatives to painful husbandry procedures, humane slaughter and neonatal development and survival.  

Alison graduated as a veterinarian from the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1993 and spent 12 years working in mixed, mainly livestock practice before returning to research.  She holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, UK, a Graduate Certificate in Food Safety Risk Assessment from the University of Maryland, USA, and was a founding member of the European College of Veterinary Public Health.