Doctor Silas Merlot was second in command to Doctor Tarsus Beetle at Transylvania Polygnostic University. He was not a Spark, a fact that clearly frustrated him immensely. If he had been a spark, his project to turn chalk into cheese might have actually had a chance of succeeding, although it is possible this was a sarcastic reference to a non-Spark attempting to behave like a Spark; he wants to be something other than he is.