A skilled scientist, Alyssa was an old friend of Reed Richards prior to him becoming the leader of the Fantastic Four, the two even dating for a time before Alyssa broke it off, apparently reasoning at the time that they 'owed it' to the world to spread their genes as widely as possible by marrying less intelligent people rather than 'confining' their gene pool. She remained in contact with Reed even after his marriage, Reed's son Franklin referring to her as 'Aunt Alyssa'.
During a crisis where Alyssa attempted to enlist Reed's help in developing 'Nu-Earth'- an Earth where the human race could retreat to when the environment of the current Earth became uninhabitable-, she attempted to suggest to Reed that the two of them had married the wrong people, pointing out that neither of their spouses could really understand their work, but Reed simply replied that he stayed with Sue because he loved her, even if Alyssa found that hard to understand.
Although a skilled scientist with superb knowledge of multiple facts, Alyssa has demonstrated an inability to understand the human element in many occasions, as shown most keenly in her inability to understand why Reed would pick the less-intelligent-than-her Susan over her.