Nur Alwanie Maruji is one of DGFC’s Conservation/Population Geneticists. She graduated from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak with a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Resource Science and Management (Zoology) and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science (Sustainable Land Use and Water Resource Management). Her degree’s final year project was a molecular study of butterflies and her master’s research project involved microbes to develop bio-fertilizers from oil palm waste and tested on plants to promote growth and improvement of soil properties. Alwanie has been improving her laboratory skills and aquiring new ones, including data analyses. She learned in high school that the environment is slowly degrading and natural resources are overexploited which has led to multiple negative impacts including species extinction. Thus, it has been her long interest to be a part of any organisation that support conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development, basically to save the world. Sabah is rich in biodiversity, home to many endemic species and is her homeland, by joining DGFC she hopes that she could contribute even small efforts in conservation and preservation activities. Her current project in the lab is to research the mtDNA genetic diversity of Bornean banteng in order to recreate the phylogenetic history of Sabah’s banteng in relation to other bovid species. Banteng, a totally wild bovid species, is one of the most threatened large species in Borneo that needs to be conserved before it is too late.