Chloe Melo-Gavin (she/her or they/them), Agrawal Lab
What do you study? I work with fruit flies to examine how the shared genome between the sexes impacts how they adapt to their environment.
What does this mean day to day? This means I spend a lot of time sorting flies or counting flies, or thinking about sorting and counting flies. I also spend a lot of time in R trying to create visually interesting but easy to understand graphs to represent the results of my experiments, though I have yet to find the perfect colour scheme.
When you’re not sorting flies how do you spend your time? Much of my time is spent reading and writing science fiction and fantasy, though recently I’ve taken up whittling—who knew cutting into things with knives is both satisfying and fun! I am always happy to carve out small animals for people who want them as well! One day, when the flies are all dead and there is no more sorting to be done, I will get back into fencing and soccer, but until then I will stare wistfully at my fencing helmet.
Why did you take on this committee work? In general, I’m passionate about building healthy and accessible workplace environments, and really appreciate that the department has so many committees dedicated to these aspects. Building community is difficult, but it’s also essential, and I hope that I can do my part to contribute to a support system that materially helps people.
How do I find you if I need you? You can come to my office, ESC 2033, and knock on the door (the door is often closed, but I may still be there!), I am usually in on Thursday. Failing that, send me an email (c.melo.gavin@mail.utoronto.ca).