Question: what is it like working through covid? is it challenging?

Fiona Fotherby answered on 28 Mar 2022:

I think working through the covid pandemic and lockdown at times made me feel unmotivated. Not only was I isolated from my friends and family, I couldn’t work in the lab for a few months, therefore my work didn’t progress normally, and I didn’t see my colleagues either. I was able to return to the lab after the first lockdown, and didn’t have to work on a rota, as some other large research groups do, so luckily my degree is not taking much longer (some have had extensions to the 3.5-4 years that it normally takes for PhD). As the pandemic progressed, I still wasn’t able to meet new people, but I started an online ChemChats club for fellow grad students. We met a few times online during lunch and after work. Still, two years on, networking is difficult and we don’t have mixer or social events for chemistry graduate students. But that is something I have been trying to organise for my class.