Schmelz's research focus is heliophysics, specifically investigating the coronal heating problem as well as the properties and dynamics of the solar atmosphere.

[6] After completing her PhD, Schmelz worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where she was part of the operations team for the Solar Maximum Mission Satellite.

[7] To study the coronal heating problem, her lab uses data from the Solar EUV Research Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS) instrument, SOHO, TRACE and Yohkoh.

[12][8] In January 2014, she participated in the Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics by giving a talk on unconscious bias at Penn State.

This is a topic she frequently covers in lectures and she often recommends investigating the origins of patriarchy (for example, Merlin Stone's 'When God Was A Woman') to understand the small numbers of women in science.

[13][14] Besides participating in the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, she has given many invited talks at Caltech, JPL, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, UT Austin, Space Telescope, the University of Maryland, MIT, the National Science Foundation, and NASA headquarters on Women in Science.