“There is a pandemic going on, I have plenty of time,” Mackenbach responds with a laugh at the start of our Skype session. We are connected to his home in Eindhoven, where he has spent the majority of his time since March 10th. His main company is his brother, who lives one floor up and who, according to the doctoral candidate, closely followed the news from China early on. “I followed it on the side, I was aware of what was going on, but not of how fast the coronavirus would come to the Netherlands. But from the moment it became relevant here, I immediately took it very seriously and followed the advice.”

Staying home is therefore simply not a point of discussion for the doctoral student. In a situation like this, I rely very much on the experts and I’m not going to make a fuss. I immediately went home when asked to do so.”

He can manage at home, the researcher says. “I have my laptop here and I turned a few books into a laptop riser. Maybe not optimal, but it works. I do work more efficiently if I can really keep ‘work’ and ‘home’ separate, but we have no choice for now. If there is a time to say, ‘I'm just working a little less now,’ it's during a pandemic." The main pitfall for Mackenbach and therefore his most important working-from-home tip for others: “If you stop at the end of the day, really close your laptop immediately. Otherwise you will soon get stuck in your work.”

Mackenbach has just finished the first three months of his PhD trajectory, within the nuclear fusion department under the supervision of Josefine Proll. “This time has mainly revolved around reading up on the topic. Now I am slowly moving towards trying to get new results; playing with the things you learned, making some toy models.” He says he mostly does “theoretical and numerical work; I really only need an internet connection for that. For people who do experimental work, working from home is a lot more difficult, I think.”

Virtual office

Every Monday he checks in to the weekly group meeting via Zoom. “That works fine. In addition, we have also set up a kind of virtual office within the group, where you can chat and hang out.” If we have to have a pandemic, then the 21st century (“in which we can keep in touch in all kinds of ways”) might be the best time to have it, Mackenbach thinks.

But, he also says: “We are all social animals; I miss the normal dynamics of my job.” And that is no different for his private life. “My brother lives above me, but I don't see anyone else at the moment. Instead, I call my friends a lot. Dinner dates, also on Mondays with our family, we now have online via skype or Whatsapp. We then chat, cook and eat. It's working."