Francesca Mele is a scientific collaborator in the research group focusing on Social Science Research on Education and the Life Course, led by Prof. Kaspar Burger, and a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Zurich. Francesca is currently also a doctoral fellow of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE).

She studied Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna, later completing a Master of Philosophy in Educational Research at the University of Cambridge. Before joining the University of Potsdam, she was a doctoral research associate at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development in Zurich, a visiting researcher at the Social Research Institute, Institute of Education, University College London, and a predoctoral researcher at the Cattaneo Research Institute in Bologna.