Melik was born in a village Črna vas ("Black Village"), south of Ljubljana, Austria-Hungary, (today Slovenia). Before and during World War I, he studied at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1916 in history and geography. Later on he was employed as a gymnasium professor. In 1926/1927 he became a senior university teacher at the Philosophical Faculty (PF) in Ljubljana, in 1932 a senior lecturer, and soon after in 1938 a professor.
In 1927 he got his doctorate at PF with a dissertation Kolonizacija Ljubljanskega barja (The colonization of the Ljubljana Moor). Between 1938 and 1966 he was a professor of geomorphology at the Department of Geography at the University of Ljubljana, succeeding there alone professor Artur Gavazzi in 1938. With his work in this field he has established his known geomorphological school.
In 1935/1936 he published his monumental monograph Geografija Slovenije (The Geography of Slovenia), (Slovenska matica) in 2 books with a general regional part, later extended with 4 more books between 1954 and 1960, with a detailed regional description of a particular tracts of a Slovene land: the Alpine world, (Lower) Styria with Transmuraland (Prekmurje) and the Mežica valley, Posavje region and finally the (Slovene) Littoral (Primorje) (the maritime province).
On November 6 1948 the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) founded a geographical institute, which carries his name since 1976.
Between 1947 and 1960, he was a head of the Department of the geography at PF. Between 1946/1947 and 1949/1950, he was a principal of the University of Ljubljana, twice a dean of PF in 1940/1941 and 1945/1946. He retired in 1966. He died in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (today Slovenia).
His students knew him to be a very severe professor and they were also afterwards.
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