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THIS BOOK IS

a result of serendipity. It was created quite by chance during the COVID virus pandemic by mathematicians from all around the world. Its authors, apart from genuine curiosity and the desire to acquire knowledge and share what they learn, are also united by things we all have in common: the quest for the meaning of life and the search for the way to live it in difficult times. The book contains personal stories about experiences from life in isolation: about job insecurity, about restricted movement but not restricted thinking, about ways of fighting, first with oneself, and then with all the challenges brought on by the pandemic.

MULTIFACETED AND

modern, the book is enriched with a series of photographs, illustrations, footnotes, and QR codes. They will take you to places where you could learn more about the authors, their interests and creations, and, additionally, about the world around us from a historical, cultural, and sometimes political point of view.

FOR ANYONE

who was confronted with strict confinement during the pandemic, who was forced to spend days in the house, derailed from daily routines, who tried to survive isolation in various ways and had fun during it in their own way, these diary entries will ignite sparks of recognition, identifications, insights, and emotions. For anyone interested in what was in people's minds and what were the challenges they faced in such times - COVIDiary will be a real discovery.

Testimonials...

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COVIDiary was created by...

Tiago Hirth

is based in Lisbon, Portugal. When he is not performing magic, doing science outreach, on the road with the Circo Matemático, 2011), giving workshops, organizing conferences, or otherwise being distracted, he enjoys doing research in Recreational Mathematics, Board Game Studies and the Conjuring Arts.

Guido Ramellini

Italian by chance, European by vocation, and citizen of the world by aspiration. He had to try very hard to become, decently, and in order: son, friend, spouse, father, and grandfather. It took as much studying as it did work for him to be able to work, again listed in chronological order, at university, high school, elementary school and finally to reach the most complex goal of early childhood education. Lives in Spain. He is one of the founding fathers of the Mathematics Museum of Catalonia (MMACA).

James Tanton

Born and raised in Australia, currently living in Arizona. He is an author, a consultant, and ambassador for the Mathematical Association of America in Washington D.C., chair of the Advisory Council for the National Museum of Mathematics, and a founder of the Global Math Project, an initiative to transform the entire world’s perception of what mathematics can, and should, be. And, yes, he is the Exploding Dots guy.

Jovan Knežević

Throughout his working life as a mathematics teacher, also teaches his students various real-life pearls of wisdom. During the winter holidays, Jovan conducts a seminar for his colleagues. During the summer holidays, he travels by train with an inter-rail ticket, touring Europe. Along the way, he visits his former students (grateful that they don't allow him to sink into the average, but constantly force him to “intellectually“ rejuvenate instead) who now live around the world. In his free time, solves jigsaw puzzles depicting old maps, which is his favorite relaxation activity. Besides that, he often climbs mountains and picks plants from which he later makes herbal infusions.

Kiran Bacche

Author of two books, Global Math Project Ambassador and Co-Founder of DhiMath, museum of mathematics. Loves teaching mathematics. Promotes visual and joyful math through his tweets. Is very fond of creating puzzles and math games. He also conducts activity-oriented math sessions for students in Bangalore, with a vision to promote their mathematical thinking in a fun and joyous way.

Sergio Belmonte

Lives in Altafulla, Spain. For years he has been playing with words by writing poetry. He is also a magician. Because of this, he has published some poems and his project about math and magic was born. Conducts workshops for teachers and students focusing mostly on recreational math and STEM. One of the first members of the Museum of Mathematics of Catalonia (MMACA), a permanent associate of some innovative educational associations, a convinced math promoter, a lover of mathematics and non-formal education.

Tijana Marković

Mathematician by education, programmer, and popularizer of science and mathematics by occupation. Fond of travel, she is trying to use every available moment to discover and visit new destinations, and to get to know other cultures. In her free time, she often writes for the popular science magazine “Elements”.

Aleksandra Ravas

At first, worked as a math teacher in her own high school, later she moved into programming. In her spare time, when not traveling, she tries to convey how mathematics is a wonderful product of the human mind to the general public by translating books, writing about current mathematical topics for CPN's scientific magazine “Elements” and sometimes, as a part of various seminars and popular science events, by sharing with the audience some anecdotes and tidbits from the history of mathematics.

Anna Muñoz de la Fuente

A retired secondary-school English and French language teacher. She is living between Barcelona and la Valèe in Occitanie. Painting used to be a hobby, but it is now her main activity. She had her works on display during some individual and collective exhibitions. Mainly dedicates herself to drawing, and especially to immediate and emotional drawing.

Giuseppe Bellavia

Has started drawing comics in his early childhood. He became interested in classical graphics in 1999, and a decade later he started working with 2D animation. In 2015, at the 62nd Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival, his animation “Joy & Joy” won the award for the best short film. Occasionally he works as an illustrator. He lives in Belgrade.

Eric C. Wilder

Father. Husband. Former Pressman, Packaging Designer, & Advertising AD. Always creating.

And what is to be found between the covers?

Common people...

But, according to American author Jane Smiley, "The fact is that the same sequence of days can arrange themselves into a number of different stories"...