Born: 26 February 1965, Uruguay
Died: NA
Country most active: Venezuela
Also known as: NA
Alejandra Melfo is a Venezuelan physicist, known for her efforts studying and conserving glaciers, especially the Humboldt Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela. She and her family moved from their native Uruguay to Venezuela in 1976 as refugees from dictatorship when she was 11.
As a faculty member at the University of the Andes, Melfo has worked in the Department of Physics and as director of the Center for Fundamental Physics, and has contributed to more than 20 scientific publications since the early 1990s.
Originally working on supersymmetric theory, she later focused on deterioration of glaciers, specifically La Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela. She leads Vida Glacial, a group of scientists dedicated to studying the disappearance of ice forms due to climate change.
Melfo has also completed field work while researching glaciers, leading an expedition to the Pico Bolívar glacier. She trained in climbing for months before traveling to the glacier, which has since melted completely. This is one of two expeditions from which 600 largely previously unknown microbial strains were recovered to be studied at the University of the Andes, where they are preserved in deep freezers.
In 2019 Melfo and biology students of the University of the Andes began working with the GLORIA-Andes Project, studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity from high-altitude climates.