[[File:Melanie.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Melanie.jpg]]Melanie is a University Innovation Fellow and a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).<br></br>
Discovering kangaroo nests on her hobbyfarm in South Australia helped lead Melanie to a life connected to nature. After finishing school, she spent a whirlwind year in the waste management yard of the fourth largest copper mine in the world. It was here that her interest in innovation took hold – developing novel ways to repurpose the copper anodes and tyres discarded from the mine. She later received a B.Sc in Environmental Biology and M.Sc in Fish Ecology Research where she spent many months studying an endangered species on a remote island in the Tasman Sea.