Professor Melissa Denecke

Biography

Melissa Denecke is Scientific Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute at The University of Manchester and holds a Chair in the University’s School of Chemistry.

Previously she was department head for ‘Actinide Speciation’, Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, following positions held at the School of Engineering, Offenburg, Forschungszentrum Rossendorf e.V. (FZR), and Universität Hamburg.

She has over 2 decades experience in nuclear fuel cycle research and development, notably in disposal of radioactive waste and legacy clean-up. She is an internationally recognised expert in application of state-of-the-art techniques for radionuclide characterisation on a molecular scale and Champion for Materials for Nuclear Energy of the Henry Royce Institute. Her research interests focus on actinide separations, immobilisation processes at interfaces, numerous aspects of radioactive waste disposal and assessment of legacies, nuclear fuels and combining spectroscopic speciation with modelling.

Melissa is also active in a number of national and international management and advisory roles, presently including Executive Board Member of Women in Nuclear Global and Board of Governors, Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation.

Current term of office ends: November 2020