Experiments in Social Distancing: Lab may be closed, but one alum improvises so he can continue with research plans
With the change in our collective reality, the Society will be talking to our alumni and share their unique experiences during this pandemic.
It鈥檚 not a great year to be a senior in high school or college. Everything鈥檚 cancelled and for Stanford senior, (STS 2016, ISEF 2014-2016), that sadly means no commencement. This news, along with moving spring quarter classes to an online platform was a 鈥渉uge bummer.鈥�
For now, the 22-year old from
Bethel, Maine, will continue fulfilling requirements remotely. After
graduating, pending a return to normalcy, Demetri plans to ski race
professionally for the next two years to participate in the 2021 FIS World
Alpine Ski Championships in Cortina, Italy, and in the 2022 Winter Olympic
Games in Beijing, China.
We had a chance to catch up with Demetri:
How are you keeping busy during the COVID-19 world crisis?
I founded a company to
develop diagnostics for kidney disease, but with this pandemic, we鈥檙e
repurposing this as a COVID-19 test, specifically for rural areas such as the
state of Maine. Though I鈥檓 at home, I鈥檓 technically on spring break for two
weeks and working on this full-time. Since our lab is closed, I鈥檓 now working
at home and moved all the essential lab equipment (non-hazardous) and built a
make-shift temporary lab in my room!
Do you have any tips or suggestions for others who
have recently been impacted by the coronavirus?
The two hardest things right
now are staying healthy and staying positive. As the CDC has advised, stay
healthy by washing your hands a lot, not touching your mouth, eyes or nose
before washing your hands. Stay home if you are sick. Stay happy by making sure
to continue exercising and pursuing other hobbies. Also find ways to socialize
while maintaining physical distance is important鈥攚e all need to make sure that
we stay connected to avoid depression and other mental health declines. One of
the things I鈥檝e done is play basketball with friends using different balls and
on different sides of the court. This way we still get to talk and connect with
each other while also following the physical distancing recommendations from
the CDC to prevent the spread of the virus.
How are you keeping
connected with the outside world?
Best way to do this is
through phone calls and outdoor activities. Outdoor activities such as walking and
running allow us to hit two sticks with one stone. We get exercise to boost
happiness and can also connect with others. I鈥檝e been spending a lot of time
with my family and phone calling friends that I鈥檓 not able to see in person.
How do you think the
textbooks will describe this point in history?
It will depend on how it
plays out over the next few weeks, but my hope is that it is remembered as a
very difficult time for several weeks with physical distancing measures and
people being impacted economically by not being able to work, but that these measures
were able to prevent a massive plague and drastically lower the death toll.
If you are interested in sharing your experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic, please email the Society Communications team at communications@societyforscience.org.
