Nathalie Kirby, University of Birmingham, UK, @NathalieKirby
The pandemic has impacted all facets of our lives, at home and at work. As an environmental exercise physiologist who works with human participants, the nature of my work shifted immediately. Luckily, I was tying up loose ends of my PhD work at the University of Birmingham and had finished the bulk of my data collection when the pandemic hit, so I was able to move home to Canada to finish writing my thesis. This meant that my data needed to be safely but quickly digitalised, and remaining blood samples were left without analysis.
Like other students, I no longer had the physical proximity to my workspace, lab group and supervisors. I no longer had an office full of other postgraduate students willing to share an opinion, troubleshoot science problems or talk through ideas. Before the pandemic, there were always opportunities to be involved with other ongoing research projects to break up long stretches of thesis writing. Now, even when lab work is able to resume, it will likely be with essential personnel only. Doing a PhD can feel isolating to begin with, so being away from my peers and the lab has been a difficult change. The challenge of communicating digitally with a time-zone difference hasn’t helped either!
I found out about the Support and Inclusion Fund from another member of my lab group. Many of us work part-time casual jobs around the university, such as laboratory demonstrating, marking and exam invigilating, and we were discussing other ways to find financial support since the usual means were unavailable. She mentioned the straightforward application process that we were familiar with from past travel grants, and that The Physiological Society had been generous in response to her Support and Inclusion Fund application.
I was so grateful to receive an award from the Support and Inclusion Fund. The award will help to give me the financial support I needed to focus on finishing the write-up of my thesis. The pandemic has made the gap between finishing data collection and finding post-doctoral employment more challenging, so I found this grant from The Society at the perfect time.
The Support and Inclusion Fund has been one of multiple factors reinforcing the value of my Physiological Society membership during the pandemic. The Society has offered so many interesting webinars, which are well-advertised through weekly emails. The webinar, Resuming laboratory testing with human participants was particularly useful, especially as advice considered the international audience. The webinar was recorded so I can go back for tips as research slowly resumes.
There is also an upcoming webinar, The Impact of the Physiological Responses to Extreme Environments on Cognitive Function, which has also been marked in my calendar for some time. Environmental exercise physiology seems to have a huge following within The Society, and has connected me with other physiologists. There is always something I am interested in, and it gives me the sense of community and engagement that I have really been missing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another virtual event that I attended during the pandemic was Future Physiology 2020, which was easily accessible for Physiological Society Members and held sessions at times that worked for researchers logging on from the UK and Europe, as well as North America. The sessions promoted discussion and engagement, with topics within and outside of physiology, such as early career research advice and mental health in academia.
Overall being a Physiological Society Member during the pandemic has been a much-needed source of community support. The Support and Inclusion Fund for those affected by the pandemic has shown that The Physiological Society values its members, and that The Society is truly committed to supporting early career researchers.