News of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke just as I began working as assistant professor at the University of Utah. Therefore, I set up collaborations with researchers across the country to establish a daily tracking program with the goal of finding significant space-time clusters of COVID-19 cases. Such information guides pandemic response by facilitating decision-making and public health resource allocation. This initial effort has led to a stream of research on the topic, covering issues of disease surveillance, visualization, and prediction. After the first two waves of the pandemic passed, it became apparent that COVID-19 was here to stay, and research efforts shifted towards societal issues associated with the disease. Utilizing the same methods of space-time clustering, I analyzed anti-Asian hate on social media, which had seen an unprecedented rise during early 2020. This work showcases the contribution of geographers and geographic techniques to pandemic response, while shedding light on the struggles and successes of life as early career researcher.
