Pooja Nathan (she/her), Frederickson Lab

What do you study? I study how different organisms cooperate, especially plants and insects. I am interested in understanding how plants are affected by cooperating with a variety of mutualistic insect partners, each bringing its own benefits. 

What does this mean you do day to day? I spend a lot of time peering at the extrafloral nectaries of the castor plant across the Indian subcontinent, and monitoring what kinds of ants and insects visit them. I have, however, been spending more time than I would like to writing code and generating plots on R due to the pandemic.

When you aren’t looking at flowers, how do you spend your time? I enjoy experiencing nature and taking pictures of the plants and animals. You can count on me to turn any walk into a nature walk! I also enjoy cooking; my comfort zone is Indian food, but lately I have been dabbling in Asian and Italian cuisine and baking.  I also like embroidering flowers and bugs, making paper beads from discarded posters and occasionally making sketches of, you guessed it, plants and bugs. I love listening to all kinds of music and sometimes, when I’m sure no one’s listening, I sing south Indian Classical music.  

Why did you take on this committee work? When I first arrived in Toronto from India, I was surprised at how flexible the work culture is in Canada and how receptive the department’s community was to mental health concerns. It is quite common for supervisors in many Indian universities to not speak with their students about anything outside of research. I not only grew to accept my own mental health struggles but was also motivated to advocate for mental health issues to be treated the same as any other illness and taken seriously in academia. I got involved in the department’s Mental Health Committee initiatives to do my part in making this community one that continues to promote mental wellness. 

How would I find you if I need to? I am quite responsive over email, so feel free to shoot me an email (pooja.nathan@mail.utoronto.ca). I am also happy to meet up in person since I stay quite close to campus; if you ever feel like eating home-cooked Indian food, you know whom to ask!