Two years since lockdown: reflections on a tough time and our future

President & Provost Dr Michael Spence reflects on the changes that have affected us since the first COVID lockdown as well as ongoing challenges, and announces a special staff event on May 31 to thank our community and celebrate UCL's resilient spirit. By President & Provost, Dr Michael Spence. It's two years on since the start of the first lockdown and it feels as if the world is just trying to catch its breath. Our growing dependence on technology, and the way that during the pandemic it has changed our expectations of the possible, makes life busier than ever before (this morning, by 9am, I had had a Korean lesson on Zoom with a teacher in Australia, done the school run, and rushed to a coffee shop to welcome people from all over the world to a UCL seminar on my phone). The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have also revealed underlying weaknesses in our economic system and the fragility of our global political order. The effects of climate change are becoming more evident every year. In all that, it is easy to be discouraged.