ILLUSTRATION: DAVIDE BONAZZI/SALZMANART
As we look toward post-pandemic life, we wanted to take a moment to think back on how this experience affected scientists. We gave young scientists this challenge: Write a haiku describing your career or field during the pandemic and your hopes for the future. Read a selection of their responses here. Follow NextGen Voices on Twitter with hashtag #NextGenSci. Read previous NextGen Voices survey results at https://science.sciencemag.org/collection/nextgen-voices. —Jennifer Sills
Home
Work-life balance
“This is importa-”
“Mommy, I need a snack now”
It’s all important
Karla K. Haack, USA
CPR
Lonely coffee break
Office plants have surely died
Colleagues catch up soon
Astrid Van Wilder, Belgium
Zoom meetings
Non-stop, but soon not
To the pajamas I love
Bittersweet goodbye
Dhruv Patel, USA
Reaction cookbooks
Exchanged flask for pot
Cookbook replaced lab notebook
Tasty test results
Shivani Patel, USA
Dimensions unknown
Theorists on Zoom
How tall are my co-workers?
Hold something for scale
Leo E. Chambers, USA
Online speech
Oops, camera’s on!
Speech broadcast in full color
Pajamas exposed
Yuan Zhi, China
Passion with a lag
Online lab meetings
Heated debates but with lags
Victories lack oomph
Hikaru Katie Kotake, USA
Relevance
Infectious disease modeling
No one knew my field
Now all say “R naught”; I hope
They can forget soon
Akira Endo, UK
Symphony in silico
Genome surveillance,
Of the pathogens we fight
Predict, protect lives
Michael Strong, USA
Nano tackles COVID
Nanoscience sees
Nanoparticle stops spread
And nanotech cures
Shruti Sharma, USA
Experience and lessons
Hunting for measures
From history’s disasters
To prevent the next
Jian Zhang, China
Lifesaving logistics
Vaccines delivered
Supply chain research crucial
Relevance maintained
Samuel Nathan Kirshner, Australia
911 calls me
A first responder
Vaccinators, SOS!
EMT role grows
Morgan Daly Dedyo, USA
PlasticMasks, LLC
Diverted to masks.
Made them better. No buyers.
Now back to rockets.
Adrian Tymes, USA
Psychology
Mental health declines
Psychologists in demand
Time to nourish souls
Sarita Kumari, India
Classroom
A chemist’s life
Make sanitizer
Teach online classes daily
Dear vaccine, come soon
Matheus Pereira Postigo, Brazil
Pandemic teaching
What are breakout rooms?
Unstable connection. Ugh.
Chat with your neighbor!
Ashley Barbara Heim, USA
Pandemic education
Back to “normal” soon
Effort and innovation
Can we keep what works?
Rachel Yoho, USA
Classroom
Tall panes guard the desks
A cloudy inconvenience
I’ll see clearly through
Elizabeth Aurora Chua, USA
(Emotionally) distanced
No classmates; black squares
Am I struggling alone
Or is it you, too?
Jasleen Gill, USA
Transitions
Impressions
New city, new lab
I still have not met my boss
Labmates became friends
Erica L. Gorenberg, USA
Grad school interview
I talk to my screen
Interview? Insanity?
We’ll shake hands someday
Charlotte Ruth Mineo, USA
Colleagues
My friends, my peers, who?
Just pixels on a phone screen
I will meet them soon
Phoebe White, USA
2020 graduate
Dissertation done
Defense via zoom, success
Now to find a job?
Michele Fullarton, USA
Walk across the keyboard
Ding, inbox degree
Hug to pixel family
PhD? We’ll see
Joseph Nicholas Rainaldi, USA
Introspection
Spring comes
Plants grow more slowly
During the long, harsh winter
But spring is coming
Marcela Viviana Nicola, Argentina
Circles and phases
Glimpse of crescent Moon
In between clouds passing by
Full Moon will soon come
Asli Pinar Tan, Turkey
Unpredictable
Could it be the air?
The doorknob or the salmon?
Maybe it is us
Hanafiah Fazhan, Malaysia
After a century
Corona looked in
And saw an epoch waiting
To take a deep breath
Archna Singh, India
Frozen in time
Like cells: Lonely, trapped
Encased: Paraffin prison
Yearning to be free
Joseph Chong, USA
Lab and Field
Germ-free mouse
Axenic before
The COVID pandemic, and
Axenic after
Martin Schwarzer, Czech Republic
The silent lab
Rusty blade, dry tube
Lie on dusty bench for months
Creak…the door opens
Bo Cao, China
Lab hands
Hands scrubbed red and raw
Tremble holding the pipette
Will grow steady soon
Charlotte Ruth Mineo, USA
Delivery delays
“Week to deliver”
Been a month but still not here
Reagent, hurry!
Anna Uzonyi, Israel
Separation anxiety
Lonely flask in lab
Searching for its scientist
United at last
Shivani Patel, USA
Waiting for pollen
Fieldwork is postponed
Recycling old datasets
Trees will bloom again
Raf Aerts, Belgium
Geology field work
No travel, just screens
Trading sunburn for eye strain
Sunscreen beats eye drops
Julie McDermott Griffin, USA
Spring melt date
Permits still on hold
I watch the snow melt swiftly
Alpine herbs still sleep
Andrea Tirrell, USA
Publishing
My PhD dissertation
Planned to finish my
Dissertation: home sweet home
But no place to write
Markus Vihma, Estonia
Missing persons
Where have you all gone?
My dearest peer reviewers
I want to publish
Man Kit Cheung, Hong Kong
Quarantine resolution
Could write a review
Maybe starting tomorrow
Or the day after
Andrea Mattiotti, Netherlands
New rotation
Nice! A break from work!
No. One per lab, come at night.
Revise. Resubmit.
Mark Allen Brimble, USA
Community
Silver lining
I’ll appreciate
Bitter conference coffee
More than in the past
Jana Nickel, Germany
Photoshop wizard wanted
Annual photo
Was photoshopped together
Next year I won’t blink
Leo E. Chambers, USA
All quiet on the western bench
Finally, it worked!
Is anyone here to see?
Solo dance, just me
Joseph Nicholas Rainaldi, USA
Insects
Their confined winter
I’ve experienced all year
Soon, fly together
Marie-Caroline Lefort, France
PhD’s forage
Stomach cravings—ugh
There’s no free food on campus
Bring back conferences!
Jan Kadlec, Israel
Essential work
Thank you very much
Cannot take you for granted
Campus bus driver
Ahmed Al Harraq, USA
Computation
Virtual carbons
With theoretical bonds
Soon, we synthesize
Sam Robert May, USA
Rise
No longer asking
“Who will sink and who will swim?”
Together we rise
Caitlin M. Aamodt, USA