Varghese Mathai, a faculty member in the Department of Physics at the University of Massachusetts, is interviewed by David Zierler. He discusses his reliance on simulated experiments during the pandemic and the value of this for fluid dynamics generally. Mathai recounts his childhood in Kerala, India, and how his interest in how things flow led to his academic specialty. He describes his undergraduate and masters work in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science before working at General Electric in the Aircraft Engines Division. Mathai discusses his thesis research at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where he studied buoyant particles in turbulent flow under Detlef Lohse and Chao Sun. He explains his decision to take a postdoctoral position at Brown University where there was a group focused on soft materials and flows with bio-inspired applications. Mathai describes the opportunities leading to his faculty appointment at UMass-Amherst and his interest in setting up a lab in the middle of a pandemic with clear opportunities to study Covid transmission as a fluid dynamics problem. He explains why the CDC guidance should have taken into greater account the expertise of fluid dynamicists and the protections (and limitations) that masks offer in stopping the spread. Mathai emphasizes the importance of visualization aids so the public can better understand the science of airborne transmission. At the end of the discussion, Mathai explains why, even after the pandemic, he will remain interested in collaborating with biologists to advance human health from the vantage point of fluid dynamics.