Dear AKG members,

As you are all aware, we are currently operating under strict instructions/restrictions from both RWTH and FZJ that have been communicated to you.

For the time being, please continue to work from home. I hope to that this will quickly result in some long-overdue manuscripts arringing on my desk.

At this moment, you still are allowed to work in our labs in Aachen when you deem this necessary, as long as (1) you are convinced that you do not show typical infection symptoms, (2) you can maintain a safe physical distance (> 2 m) to other institute or group members, and (3) follow the pertinent hygiene recommendations that have been posted in the institute. Jan plans to continue to work from room 107 and remain as our contact point. I will also be present at IAC as I am currently trying to address the challenges related to teaching and exams for the chemistry department.

The next group seminar on Monday, March 23, is cancelled, and Yu-Shu's presentation will be postponed. Marvin: bitte dem Fahrdienst Bescheid sagen.

However, we have scheduled a seminar talk (on hydrido complexes) from one of the students attending my Advanced Coordination Chemistry class, also taking place at 10 am on Monday. This would be difficult to postpone. It would be helpful if, apart from Jan and me, one or two more group members could be present as well.

For Jülich, I have spoken to Prof. Schneider and we can arrange limited, essential lab/office work where necessary, but since FZJ will move to a "basic operations mode" starting Friday, this would require advance planning.

Our Forschungspraktikums students (Salvatore and Lenonard, both supervised by Marvin) will have to suspend their experimental work. The deadlines for their reports will be extended automatically by one month.

Please note that thorough hand washing (ideally for 20-30 sec) constitutes the "gold standard" for preventing infections (including corona, flu and other virus families).

As of today, two FZJ employees were tested positive for Covid-19 but fortunately all contact persons could be identified and quarantined so that FZJ currently is "corona free" (with the exception of the Corona Extra stored in some PGI-6 offices). RWTH had a single infection case (a technical employee in one of the engineering institutes), and no students nor IAC members have been reported positive yet.

And if you really want to know how home office feels when the three boys are confined at home, as the Kitas and schools are closed... https://twitter.com/danieljpeter/status/1238551670327402496

Stay healthy, PK