Closing the chapter: Goodbye from Joyce

Posted by Joyce Yu, on 17 July 2025

Today marks the end of the chapter for my time at the Node and Development. What a ride it has been!

I don’t think you can find many jobs like this one: on the same day I could be writing a Research Highlight about a Development paper on morphogenesis, editing drafts written by researchers, interviewing someone about their career path and organising an online workshop with Reinier and Helen, the amazing team of community managers at preLights and FocalPlane.

I sometimes still can’t believe that I could be paid to do all these fun things. I also get to work alongside a group of brilliant people at The Company of Biologists, who had to endure my endless questions, my slight obsession with lists and spreadsheets, and my annoying complaints about the state of social media. I’ll really miss reading about all-things development biology (and beyond), working with everyone from the Company and interacting with the wider research community.

Here’s non-exhaustive list of my time at the Node and Development:

Research Highlights written: 59
Interviews conducted with people across the world at different career stages, with all kinds of career paths: 33
Hours spent on social media: too many…
Edits and feedback on drafts provided: I started counting but quickly lost track. My guess is it’s >120
Online webinars/workshops delivered: 10
Conferences attended: 8
Strava segment efforts on my cycle commute (specifically, the ‘Cambs north to Histon’ segment): 276

This axolotl was already waiting for me on the desk on my first day. I’ve named it Axie. No one knows how it got here and how old it is…

A highlight for me while at the Node is that I got to be around when The Company of Biologists turns 100 (and the Node turns 15). The Biologists @ 100 conference was hectic, but so much fun. I also enjoyed looking back at the origin story of the Node, and chatting to all the previous Community Managers.

Another highlight was reviving the Node’s career series. More than a decade ago, the Node featured a series of posts written by scientists who had gone on to do non-academic things, i.e. ‘alternative careers’, a term I want the Node to move away from. I decided to find people who have unconventional career paths – hence the name of the interview series: No such thing as a standard career path. I had the pleasure of talking to a group of people who have very different journeys to get to where they are now – all they have in common is that they are working, or have once worked, in development biology or related fields. It was a bit nerve-wrecking cold emailing people I’ve found on the internet. But every single conversation turned out to be really fun and thought-provoking. I hope the series has managed to demonstrate that many valid career paths exist.

The Node could only have survived for 15 years all thanks to every one of you in the community — whether you’re a quiet reader or an active writer for the Node — thank you for your support for the Node and The Company of Biologists! I hope to see the Company continue to support and inspire biologists across the world for years to come. I’d like to encourage you to:

Visit our sister community sites preLights and FocalPlane
Apply for meetings and travel grants
Come to our future Development presents… webinars
Join us at one of our journal meetings or workshops
Submit your manuscripts to Development (or Journal of Cell Science, Disease Models & Mechanisms, Journal of Experimental Biology and Biology Open if appropriate)
And of course, please consider posting on the Node – we welcome all kinds of posts, from a job advert to an event listing, from a behind the paper story to an ‘honest conversation’ about a topic that you’re passionate about but feel like it’s not well-discussed. Remember, you’re free to post without requiring approval. But the Node team is always happy to help at any point of the writing process.

I’m signing off from the Node now (although I’ve scheduled a few more posts for the quieter summer months, so you’ll see the ‘ghost’ of me posting). I’m off to continue my own ‘squiggly’ career journey – my next adventure is doing science communication in the biotech industry, an unfamiliar, but exciting world for me to explore. If you want to follow along, you can find me on LinkedIn.

Thank you, and maybe see you around!

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Categories: Discussion

One thought on “Closing the chapter: Goodbye from Joyce”

Alex Eve says:

July 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM

Thank you, Joyce for being a great Community Manager and a great colleague. The Development team will miss you and thank you for everything you have done for the Node during the time you have been with us!

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