Dr Marina Fainerman-Melnikova completed her degree in Chemistry at Kiev University and earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Sydney. She currently works as a Senior Chemist in the Process Development group at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) within the Minerals business unit.

With over 25 years of experience in research and commercial projects, Marina focuses on developing hydrometallurgical processes for the separation, purification, and recovery of rare earth elements, scandium, zirconium, hafnium, lithium, and uranium. She specialises in solvent extraction and ion exchange techniques and is involved in running numerous solvent extraction pilot plants.