2020: Converting Learning to Research

2020 was a strange year for everyone. For me, it was the year I started trying to convert all the learning I’d done into actual research.

---

A New Lab

I joined my lab in 2020 and began the work of becoming a researcher in earnest. The difference between being a student and being a researcher is subtle but profound: as a student, someone else defines the problem and evaluates whether you’ve solved it. As a researcher, you have to figure out what question is worth asking — and that’s much, much harder.

COVID and the PhD

The pandemic reshaped what a PhD looked like for my cohort. Labs closed, experiments paused, and the in-person community of science that I’d come to value was suddenly virtual. I leaned into computational work, which turned out to be formative — it cemented my identity as a computational biologist.

Music

One of the things that kept me sane during 2020 was music. I play guitar, and the enforced isolation of the pandemic meant I practiced more than I had in years. Some recordings from that period:

• Father and Son
• Who Says
• 93 Million Miles

There’s something about music that connects the left-brain/right-brain divide in a way nothing else does. Highly recommend having a creative outlet if you’re doing a PhD.

Sights

Despite everything, 2020 had its beautiful moments — trips to Michigan and New York when windows opened, reminders that the world was still out there.

---

Up next: 2021 — Does organizing my Notion count as research? →