Joaquin Navajas Acedo makes science social: 2025 SDB Trainee Science Communication Award

6/16/2025

By Caroline Halmi

Joaquin Navajas Acedo has been awarded the 2025 Society for Developmental Biology (SDB) Trainee Science Communication Award. This award recognizes outstanding scientific communication efforts by undergraduate students, graduate students, or postdoctoral members of the society. Currently a postdoctoral researcher in Alex Schier’s laboratory at the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Navajas Acedo is being acknowledged for his work organizing SDB’s social media pages and outreach initiatives as well as for his efforts to connect scientists and share exciting research online through his personal accounts on X and Bluesky, where he is known as “@MadS100tist.”

Navajas Acedo has an educational journey that spans multiple countries and research institutions. Originally from Spain, he obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cell biology and genetics before travelling to Kansas City, Missouri, to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research where he pursued his PhD and began his training as a developmental biologist in the laboratory of Tatjana Piotrowski. During his doctoral training, he had the opportunity to take the Embryology Course at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, which cemented his commitment to developmental biology by allowing him to learn countless new techniques from a wide variety of model organisms. He returned to Woods Hole as a teaching assistant for the same class, allowing him to directly engage with students and inspire them to pursue research. His role as a teaching assistant was transformative, as it was through this position that he realized the importance of communicating topics in a clear manner and the impact this could have on fostering a deeper understanding of complex subjects.

Soon after in 2017, Navajas Acedo became an essential member of the SDB Publications and Communications Committee, where he continues to contribute to communication within the society as well as to broader communities about developmental biology. Aside from managing SDB’s social media accounts where Navajas Acedo  has increased  the organization’s online presence, he also promotes initiatives that encourage interest in developmental biology, including the Choose Development! campaign that aims to increase the number of undergraduate researchers from diverse backgrounds who pursue graduate school and Zebrafish Rock!, a platform on X and Bluesky dedicated to promoting research using zebrafish. “What I’m trying to do with the society is help [them] reach as many people as possible,” Navajas Acedo stated.

Outside of his involvement in SDB’s media team, Navajas Acedo is also committed to connecting as many people as possible though his personal platforms. Over the years, he has acquired a following of both researchers and non-scientists who enjoy his posts. His posts cover a number of scientific topics including publications, experimental troubleshooting, academic achievements, as well as topics important to him, such as highlighting underrepresented voices and anything related to zebrafish, his research organism. “Some people think that your professional activity and personal activity need to be separate. But I think that for [scientists], it is a bit more complicated, because I go home and I am still a scientist, and I come [to work] and I am still myself,” Navajas Acedo notes.

A large part of Navajas Acedo's success on social media comes from his ability to engage with his followers. He works diligently to make his posts as understandable as possible. This includes the use of “alt descriptions,” text descriptions of images meant to aid people with visual impairments. Navajas Acedo writes alt descriptions with every image he posts. “You never know who is going to be checking out your posts,” he says. “There is a big difference in saying ‘blood vessels in green’ … and ‘imagine you are looking at a spider web, but the spider web is green and looks like the state of Massachusetts,’” he continues. Further, he is cognizant of the language he uses on his scientific posts, so that he can try to spark interest in as many people as possible. “You don’t need to reach everybody all the time… but at least make sure if you do reach someone new, [the content is] useful or interesting to them,” he said.

Navajas Acedo believes that scientists have a responsibility to make their work relatable and accessible, so that the public can easily understand its relevance. This is particularly true with a topic like developmental biology, where the connection to everyday life is sometimes more obscure compared to direct topics such as disease research. Making connections between understanding developmental processes and their medical applications is a powerful tool for engagement. By explaining the “why we do what we do [to people] … it automatically clicks,” he notes.

When asked about his most memorable moment on social media, Navajas Acedo was not able to choose just one. Instead, he discussed all the memorable conversations he has had and the friends he made that social media has given him: “The best memories are about the people. All the wholesome memories that [I have] accumulated.”

Ultimately, his message is one of inclusivity and passion. He believes that enthusiasm paves the way for creativity and strives to help others find what they are passionate about. To Navajas Acedo, it does not matter if someone is interested in developmental biology, chemistry, physics, or a different path altogether; what matters is finding interests and giving people the freedom to explore them. He hopes that by allowing people to express themselves freely, whether that be through science, art, or any other field, we open the door to extraordinary ideas and groundbreaking work. By making science as accessible as possible, he hopes he can help people find interest in a field that they might not be exposed to otherwise.  

While research is a highly specialized field, Navajas Acedo’s devotion to developmental biology and science communication is a powerful example of how scientists can have a broader impact on their community. Through his position in SDB promoting initiatives as their social media organizer as well as on his own platforms, along with his commitment to making science accessible and inclusive for all, he has exemplified ways to effectively communicate complex topics in an understandable manner. And just as any organism relies on many different cell types to function, Navajas Acedo believes our world is the same and needs many different voices and ideas to truly flourish.

Last Updated 06/04/2025