Frank Melzner obtained his Dr. rer. nat. in Animal Physiology from the University of Bremen, Germany, in 2005. He then carried out postdoctoral work at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, focusing on the physiology of ocean acidification. From 2007 to 2022, he was an Assistant Professor and tenured group leader at Kiel University (CAU Kiel) and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, before being appointed Full Professor at the same institutions from 2023 to 2025, where he led the Experimental Ecology Unit. Since 2026, he has been a Full Professor at the University of Vienna, with a focus on coastal evolutionary ecology and climate change adaptation.

Frank Melzner's research combines ecology, physiology and evolutionary biology to understand how quickly key coastal species can adapt to climate change and how new species communities are forming along European coasts, using field studies along the coast together with laboratory and mesocosm experiments that simulate future ocean conditions to help protect and manage coastal ecosystems more effectively.