• Question: Where would you be right now if COVID-19 wasn't happening?

    Asked by CraMorpeko on 7 Jan 2022.
    • Photo: Samuel Ellis

      Samuel Ellis answered on 7 Jan 2022:

      The research project I was working on before the pandemic would have finished last year, so I probably would have moved to a new lab for another job. Instead we got funding to do COVID-19 research here, so I am happily still in the same lab now

    • Photo: Jonny Coates

      Jonny Coates answered on 7 Jan 2022:

      Probably in Cambridge where I did my first postdoc. I quit this job during the first lockdown and now work as a postdoc in London which I enjoy so much more!

      I’d also not have published as many papers without COVID.

    • Photo: Lucy Garner

      Lucy Garner answered on 8 Jan 2022:

      Good question! I had just finished my PhD when the pandemic started and was thinking about possible places to move for a postdoc (research job after PhD). I ended up staying in Oxford and working on COVID-19 related projects instead. So I might have been anywhere in the world!

    • Photo: Chris Budd

      Chris Budd answered on 8 Jan 2022:

      Before COVID I was dong most of my work on climate prediction. I am still doing this (for example I went to COP) but not at the same level. But the climate will still be with us when (hopefully) COVID is gone and I will continue to work in that. In February I will start a big 5 year project on the maths of deep learning, which has applications to both COVID and to Climate as well as many other things such as medical imaging.

    • Photo: Valerie Vancollie

      Valerie Vancollie answered on 8 Jan 2022:

      That’s a hard question to answer. The job I was doing was already winding down when the first lockdown hit. That cancelled an interview I had for a new job, so perhaps I’d have been working that job. But who knows? The job I have now (being part of the Covid Genomic Surveillance team) wouldn’t exist without the pandemic, so I don’t know what job I might have found instead. There weren’t a lot of jobs being advertised when I was looking, so it’s hard to know what I might have found if things hadn’t been so limited.

    • Photo: Melanie Krause

      Melanie Krause answered on 8 Jan 2022:

      After my PhD I actually wanted to move to the US for my new work, but Donald Trump had banned new visas from being issued, so I stayed in Europe for my next job… but if that hadn’t been the case I would maybe be in Boston working on Epstein Barr Virus now.

    • Photo: John Tulloch

      John Tulloch answered on 10 Jan 2022:

      I would still be at Liverpool, but I would have been spending more time doing my day-to-day research which explores how animals impact human health and well-being. More importantly I would love to right now be in an exotic location enjoying a cocktail on a holiday! 🙂

    • Photo: Amy Mason

      Amy Mason answered on 10 Jan 2022:

      I’d like to think I’d be on a beach or exploring some far-off city, but probably I’d be in an office working.
      I’d be having more fun on the weekends though, if covid hadn’t happened!

    • Photo: Holly Kerr

      Holly Kerr answered on 10 Jan 2022:

      My PhD is largely focusing on the virus that causes COVID-19, so I may be doing a completely different project! I accepted the offer to do my degree very shortly before the pandemic was declared though, so I would still be in Edinburgh on some research project or another. I’d like to think I would have had a few more holidays and nights out along the way but hey ho!

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