Adam Taylor

Professor, Lancaster Medical School

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I’m working from – A spare bedroom at home with my wife doing similar and sharing home-schooling responsibilities.

Innovative working environment – I use piles of textbooks to bring the textbooks/documents/resources I need closer to me at desk level, rather than them being on the floor. This is quite handy as it doubles as an assault course for when I need to exercise, or the books can be re-arranged to keep my new co-workers out. This is the kind of resource deployment anatomists have developed over the years and we knew it would come in handy one day. 😝

Pandemic teaching – My teaching activities have gone up massively. I don’t have time to do all the things that are needed. At the moment, I am focusing on the student-facing activities to try to get to the end of the term and minimize disruption to their teaching. Then I hope to be able to turn to research and planning for teaching in the next academic year.

Other challenges include...

• Exploring just how long my patience is – turns out it is twice as long as the distance to the middle 😊
• Measuring how many cups of caffeinated liquids I can have on the go at any one time – currently on day 43 of repeat experiment, results will hopefully get me that Nature paper I have always dreamed of
• Redefining what constitutes an indoor sport – I have my eye on the 2021 Olympics

How I stay connected with students – Via Microsoft Teams. They are grateful for what I am doing, even though it is less than ideal for their learning.

How I keep staff engaged – Being as interactive and helpful as possible. Offering additional help whenever I can, and understanding that everyone’s circumstances are a challenge.

Lockdown life – Every day I make it through this prison-like arrangement is a milestone. Watching wildlife from my new office window (something I rarely get to do from the normal office window) helps me escape and realize that even in this chaotic existence there are still a lot of amazing things out there – inspiring lots of comparative anatomy learning.

Back to primary school – I am actually enjoying learning many of the things that my child is learning. The school has sent a lot of work home and some of this has been educational for me. Turns out, based on recent performance, it is a miracle I managed to pass many non-science subjects.

Thoughts on meetings – Please, no more meetings about having more meetings! Also, I humbly request that my family not form any more working from home committees whilst I am in Teams meetings.

I’ve given up – Going to the gym, and started spending way more time with family. I think I have also forgotten how to drive.

My guilty pleasures – Chocolate and caffeine! Deleting “non-essential” items off the weekly shopping list (please don’t tell my significant other).

I’ve come to appreciate – My family, the internet, and my bed. (Order may vary depending on the circumstances.)

I’ve forgiven myself for – Not getting enough exercise.

My lifesavers – Anything that enables us to connect with family and friends; it will be a long time before we see many of them face to face, so it’s great that technology enables us to connect. The global anatomy community, a great group of likeminded individuals stepping up to the plate to deliver awesome education whatever the global crisis!!