Co-Presidents
Puneeth Deraje
Amanda Peake
Amanda is a PhD candidate in the Stinchcombe Lab. Amanda spends most of her time tangled-up in Morning Glory vines or enjoying the view with her Arabidopsis on the Earth Science roof. You can often find her staring at her leafy friends trying to understand how evolution gave rise to so much phenotypic diversity. When she isn’t poking and prodding at plants on campus, she’s probably taking blurry photos of birds or sticking googly eyes on all of her houseplants.
email: amanda.peake@mail.utoronto.ca
Treasurer
Bailey Hewitt
Bailey is a PhD candidate in the Jackson lab. She studies the biodiversity of freshwater fish across continents. When she isn’t taking fish photos or endlessly staring at the computer, you will find her fawning over anything fish related or making non fish related things relate to fish, playing hockey and soccer, playing with her family pups, and making bad puns!
email: bailey.hewitt@mail.utoronto.ca
Secretary
Gavia Lertzman-Lepofsky
Campus Representatives
Thomas Dudgeon (ROM)
Tolu Babalola (UTM)
Anthony Rajkumar (UTSC)
EEBU Representative
Hana Fahim
Hana is a MSc student at the D’Aloia lab studying habitat preferences and specificity of cryptobenthic fishes and the effect of coral reef degradation on these fishes in Curacao. In a previous life, she worked as an investment banker but returned to school to pursue her passion for ecology and conservation. In her free time, Hana enjoys hiking, diving, and traveling, but when it’s cold, she prefers cozying up inside and playing board games.
email: hana.fahim@mail.utoronto.ca
GSU Representative
Thomas Dudgeon
Professional Development
Athmaja Viswanath
I am a PhD student in the Cutter lab trying to understand how new species are formed by studying interspecies hybrids of the tiny but cool Caenorhabditis nematodes. In my free time I love to do art and watch true-crime documentaries. I am always up for Tea (Chai) no matter what the weather or time of the day it is!!
email: athmaja.viswanath@mail.utoronto.ca
Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor is a PhD Candidate in the Andrade Lab studying how mating system affects population establishment in invasive false widow spiders. She is also an executive with Girls SySTEM Mentorship, a non-profit geared towards increasing diversity in STEM programs by fostering engagement through workshops and scholarships for girls in grades 7-12. When not watching spider mating under red lights, Laini can be found hanging out with friends at events like puppy yoga (as pictured), strolling the boardwalk at Woodbine, or binge-watching Bravo (unofficial PhD in this franchise).
email: laini.taylor@mail.utoronto.ca
Social Representatives
Katie Maunder
Katie is a PhD student in the Bontrager and Stinchcombe labs who studies the evolutionary forces governing floral variation. When they aren’t off doing fieldwork in roadside ditches, Katie enjoys biking around Toronto, pestering people for crossword answers, and partially completing crochet projects.
email: katie.maunder@mail.utoronto.ca
Louisa Bartkovich
Jessie Wang
Jessie is a PhD student in the Frederickson Lab studying plant-microbe interactions with high-throughput experimentation in duckweeds. In her spare time, she enjoys being overly caffeinated, rewatching Coraline, and going for long walks to catch Pokémon. She also loves trying to spot and photograph the chubbiest pigeons and squirrels around the city.
email: jae.wang@mail.utoronto.ca
Health & Safety
Alicia Wong
Alicia (she/her/they) is a MSc student in the Cutter Lab where she adopts novel high throughput methods to assay nematode fitness. She hopes to build a care centred community within the department through increased education and access to safety resources. Outside the lab, Alicia can be found crocheting, thrifting, and shooting film photography.
email: aliciaruth.wong@mail.utoronto.ca
Mental Health Committee
Katie Maunder
Luna Taguchi
Luna is a 2nd year PhD student in the Mideo lab studying ecology and evolution of pathogens. She uses mathematical models as a way to understand the diversity of outcomes of infectious diseases.
When her eyes are off from the screen, Luna enjoys teaching new tricks to her two dogs and biking around the city to visit her favorite ice cream places.
Email: luna.taguchi@mail.utoronto.ca
Puneeth Deraje
Fundraising
Saher Alvi
Atwood Chair
Mete Yuksel
Mete is a 2nd year PhD student in the Osmond and Mideo labs. He is developing theory to understand patterns, causes, and consequences of pathogen recombination. Outside of science, he can be found listening to podcasts, cooking, and cycling between Toronto neighborhoods in search of coffee.
email: mete.yuksel@mail.utoronto.ca
IT
Cassandre Pyne
Cassandre is a second year PhD student in the Wright lab studying how chromosomal rearrangements and neo-sex chromosomes spread in populations. In her free time, Cassandre enjoys doing yoga and hanging out with her cats.
email: cassandre.pyne@mail.utoronto.ca
KSR Retreat Organizer
Jessie Wang
Mentorship
Maria Tocora
María C. Tocora (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Frederickson Lab studying ecology and evolutionary biology of mutualisms. As a proud latinx, María actively participates in EDI initiatives where she seeks to involve more Latin American societies in science. In the EEB Department, María has been a member of the MHC, BREWS, the Allyship Network, and now is the EEB Mentorship Coordinator. When not talking/reading/dreaming with ants and microbes (her age-old favorite organisms), she enjoys hiking, eating gelato, and failing in dancing.
email: maria.tocora@mail.utoronto.ca
EGSA 