And a lot has changed! We'll go in chronological order.
February: We bade farewell to Lina, the first full time Gerhold lab member and worm injector extraordinaire (remember when we could still eat together, at a restaurant, indoors??). We'll miss her!
March: COVID-19 happened. The lab (and Montreal) closed and we all went home to #flattenthecurve.
Also March: We learned how to use Zoom for... EVERYTHING! Lab meetings, teaching, happy hours, town halls... We're zoomed out.
April: We all worked from home as best we could. Abby learned 2nd grade math, in French (yay homeschooling!) and Réda, Eric, Alison and Joleen worked hard on their first year progress reports.
Also April: Some good news - the lab was awarded an NSERC DG and a FRQNT NR grant!!!
May: Réda, Eric, Alison and Joleen all kicked ass at their first supervisory committee meetings and we remote toasted our two talented undergraduates - Elizabeth and Yifan - who graduated. So proud of these two!
Also May: We said a remote farewell to Yasmine who joined her Honours research lab full time for the summer. We'll miss her too!
June: #blacklivesmatter. I am tentatively hopeful that we may finally make some progress on addressing the systemic racism and inequities that are baked into all aspects of our society and I will do my best to use my privilege to address these issues in academia, in particular, and elsewhere.
Also June: We re-opened the lab and are learning how to work while #socialdistancing + #washyourhands + #wearyourmask (Did I mentioned that I learned to sew face masks?)
Hoping the summer brings sun, fewer Zoom meetings, less coronavirus and maybe even some new data?
