Melanie Sinche is currently the Director of Education at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT, developing programs for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars in genomic education and assisting scientists with career transitions. Melanie is also the author of Next Gen PhD: A Guide to Career Paths in Science, published by Harvard University Press. While working on Next Gen PhD, she served as a Senior Research Associate in the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School, where she conducted survey research on careers for PhDs in science. She was also the Founding Director of the FAS Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at Harvard University, held the same position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health in building the first NIH Career Services Center for over 9,000 intramural trainees.
Her current research explores employment patterns of recent science and engineering PhDs. Her work also addresses skills and experiences required to enter different scientific occupations, and illustrates whether these were developed in the educational/training period of the PhD or on the job, thus contributing to the national discussion of the training of PhD-level scientists and engineers.