Opinion: Redefining Productivity in the Age of COVID-19

We mourned the closing of our lab. But then we got back to work—finding the balance between scholarly relevance and adapting to life in a world of new social norms.

Written bySadye Paez and Erich Jarvis

| 6 min read

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ABOVE: The empty Jarvis lab on the day it closed
ERICH JARVIS

It is Wednesday afternoon, March 18, 2020, a beautiful day hinting at spring, the cherry blossoms beginning to bloom. The city that never sleeps is restless, with many of its 8.6 million residents either incredulous about the growing urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic or fully committed to preparing for quarantined life indoors, a seeming impossibility here where domestic life typically spills out onto front stoops and into city parks and crowded restaurants. In Manhattan, one sacrifice among the millions that residents are making unfolds. One of us (EDJ) tweets, “The first time I have to close my lab in 22 years. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us all in many ways. Let’s all be part of the solution.” Our institution, the Rockefeller University, officially closed that day.

The decree by our university and city to shut down all non-essential ...

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Meet the Author

Sadye Paez
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Sadye is a Latina and first-generation American. She is a Senior Research Associate in the Neurogenetics of Language Laboratory at The Rockefeller University, a fellow with New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and the program director for the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). She earned a master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Central Florida. She then completed a master’s degree in public health leadership and a doctoral degree in human movement science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sadye seeks to address the principles and practices that shape STEM culture as the chair for the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee for the Earth Biogenome Project.
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Erich Jarvis
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