Georgina Ferry interviews Sumali Bajaj, DPhil student (Department of Biology), 17 March 2023. Topics discussed include (00:00:38) early interest in science, undergraduate studies in India, research projects, work at a government hospital in the biostats unit, consultancy for the Public Health Foundation of India, scholarship master's studies at Harvard University, role at Imperial College and work on HIV and Alzheimer's; (00:07:04) first awareness of COVID-19; (00:08:27) work on COVID-19 at Imperial; (00:14:23) move to Oxford to begin doctoral training programme in October 2020; (00:17:25) projects relating to COVID-19, work with Moritz Kraemer including project relating to the spread of the Alpha variant; (00:21:46) data collection on mobility and human behaviour; (00:22:44) paper relating to the spread of Delta in England; (00:25:25) modelling, associations and trends in statistics; (00:26:53) influence on policy at a national level; (00:28:00) additional PhD projects, including work on other diseases; (00:29:40) collaboration during the pandemic, importance of interdisciplinary work; (00:32:04) lessons learned through the pandemic, including sharing of ideas and knowledge; (00:33:17) focus of work for the future, including infectious diseases and neglected tropical diseases; (00:36:00) personal threat from COVID-19; (00:37:52) changes to work schedule, including remote working; (00:39:16) adopted routines during the pandemic, including cycling; (00:42:52) changes to future work as a result of the pandemic; (00:45:30) future postdoctoral positions and next stage in career, collaborative work with Moritz Kraemer, Cristl Donnelly and José Lorenzo.