Melody Clark, Project Leader, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge

Melody has a genetics degree and PhD from London University. After years of being a dedicated lab bunny staring at genes, she has discovered the joys of fieldwork at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

She is a Project Leader running a group of people who work in very different areas: physiology, molecular biology, ecology and bioinformatics. The group studies two main areas: how animals adapt to the extreme cold and how they may react in the face of predicted climate change. Her role? If it’s small and moves, she’ll sequence its DNA – they don’t let her near the large cute and cuddly stuff!