Alejandra Melfo

Alejandra Melfo (born 26 February 1965) is a Uruguayan-born Venezuelan physicist. She is known for her efforts studying and conserving glaciers, especially the Humboldt Corona, the last glacier in Venezuela.

Early life Melfo was born in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, and moved to Venezuela with her family in 1976 as refugees from dictatorship when she was 11. She later became a naturalized Venezuelan citizen. She studied at the University of the Andes (ULA) in Mérida and received her undergraduate degree in 1989, her master's degree in 1994, and became a faculty member at ULA whilst studying for a PhD in astrophysics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy. after being introduced to the research of Andrés Yarzábal, a microbiologist at the University of the Andes.

She has also undertaken fieldwork while researching glaciers, fronting an expedition to the Pico Bolívar glacier. She undertook training 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, where they are preserved in deep freezers.

She worked with her cousin, the Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler, to write the song "Despedir a los glaciares", which is included on the 2017 album Salavidas de hielo and is about the disappearance of the glaciers and the problems that cause it. Also in 2017, she was one of the jury deciding the recipients of the Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize.

In 2019 Melfo and biology students of the University of the Andes began working with the GLORIA-Andes Project, focusing on the effects of climate change on biodiversity from high-altitude climates. They again face problems being unable to use computers for notes due to a lack of printing ink, and relying on second-hand or donated climbing gear that they store in a CLAP box.

Personal life Melfo disagrees with the Maduro administration. She wrote a famous 2014 letter to Drexler that was widely published in Uruguay, where she explains her feelings towards the crisis in Venezuela, especially the tupamaros of Mérida, and her reasons for participating in the 2014 Venezuelan protests.

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