Alfred L Roca

Alfred L Roca is a Professor at the Department of Animal Sciences and affiliated with multiple institutions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including the School of Information Sciences, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and Illinois Natural History Survey. His research focuses on population genetics, wildlife conservation, and evolutionary biology, particularly in large mammals like elephants, lions, and deer. He develops genomic tools such as Lion Localizer and Numt Parser to analyze genetic diversity and disease susceptibility.

Research Areas:

• Wildlife genomic conservation
• Population structure analysis
• Disease susceptibility genetics
• Mitochondrial DNA studies
• Non-invasive sampling methods
• Historical ecology

Recent Articles (2024–2025) highlight his work on lion provenance, elephant gene flow, mammoth genome preservation, and koala extinction dynamics. These span genomics, evolutionary biology, and conservation technology. He teaches courses like ANSC446/IB416 Population Genetics and ANSC406 Zoo Animal Conservation Science.