Dr Melanie Roffet-Salque is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow and a proleptic lecturer in Environmental Chemistry. Melanie’s research is investigating the relationships between humans in the past and the environments in which they lived.

After graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille (France), Melanie moved to Bristol to start a PhD in Chemistry studying the emergence of milk exploitation in Prehistoric Europe using molecular and isotope composition of lipids preserved in ancient pottery vessels. She stayed in Bristol to take up a senior Postdoctoral Research Associate post on the European Research Council (ERC) funded grant, ‘NeoMilk’ (PI: Professor Richard Evershed), to develop and validate new proxies to investigate subsistence practices in prehistoric farming settlements in northern central mainland Europe.

“During my five-year post-doctoral position here at the School of Chemistry, I discussed with my mentor potential opportunities for pursuing my career in Bristol. We identified several Fellowships and grants I was eligible to apply for. I prepared my applications with support from my mentor, the School of Chemistry, and the Research and Enterprise Development (RED) team. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time and attended many interviews.

"The RED team was fantastic in organising an online interview for me (not that common pre-2020!). I secured a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship in 2018, a few months after my daughter was born. I started my Fellowship just after my maternity leave and relished the opportunity to work part-time (0.8 FTE), supported both by my funder and the School of Chemistry. The School of Chemistry is now supporting my wish to come back to a full-time post.”