Meet the University of Michigan astronomer with over 1.3M social media followers

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ANN ARBOR, MI — Scientists are not required to learn about science communication, but Teresa Paneque excels at it.

“It’s not one of the things that you have to tick off as steps to make towards advancing your career,” Paneque, 28, said. “I do believe that science communication has made me a better scientist, and I think it’s also really valued by my peers.”

She is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, published five books for children and teenagers, produces Spanish-language content for over 1.3 million followers across TikTok and Instagram and is the first ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Chile.

She learned in September that she was a top prize winner for the 2025 Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications for her social media work, previous book publications and work with UNICEF.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recognized Paneque and 23 other award recipients in Washington, D.C. in November.

The prize gives her the resources to expand her scientific communication projects beyond just her phone, Paneque said.

Brittany Aguilar, science associate at Schmidt Sciences, the organization that funds the prize, confirmed that the National Academies received over 700 applications for their 24 awards this year.

She acknowledged the work of science communicators and said “they do it on their own time, they put their own money into it.” Schmidt Sciences is working toward legitimizing science communication as a career path, according to Aguilar, 37.

“When we have people who win the award, like Teresa, who are really successful in both in their academic career and in their science communication career, that’s the ideal thing that I think we are hoping that there will become more of people like this in the world,” Aguilar said.

Originally from Chile, Paneque’s “fundamental calling” was to be a teacher, she said, and she would pretend to teach classes to her toys as a little kid.

“When I was in high school, I would do small teaching sessions for math and even history,“ Paneque said. ”I just loved learning and I loved sharing what I had learned."

She went into astronomy because she enjoyed “studying things that we couldn’t touch.”

Paneque received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Universidad de Chile and her doctoral degree as part of the International Max-Planck Research School program from the European Southern Observatory in Germany and Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2024.

She came to UM in the fall of the same year.

Paneque originally did not think she would pursue social media. She thought being an influencer was for “really cool, popular kids.”

Her life changed during the total solar eclipse over Chile and Argentina in July 2019 when she and other astronomers were interviewed to explain the phenomenon.

After the interviews, Paneque wanted to continue using her teaching and talking skills by recording educational videos for social media. Her videos gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and she began posting more consistently once she moved to Germany to start her PhD.

Her first video was an explanation of how scientists could find planets through the transit method, when a planet passes between a star and its observer, in August 2019.

“I knew nothing of video editing so I would just put my phone and try to record in under a minute, so I had to record it like 50 times because if I went a little bit over a minute, it just wouldn’t work,” Paneque said.

Since she began posting regularly on social media, her videos have accumulated over 15 million likes on TikTok. Her most popular video is a summary of five observations from the James Webb Space Telescope in July 2022.

Paneque said she loves both scientific research and communication, but likes communication slightly more “because it gives a lot of meaning to my job” and she can “impact millions.”

“It’s also the impact you can have in furthering good public policies, it’s the impact you can have when you use your voice to promote curiosity and promote teamwork,” Paneque said.

She wants the Spanish-speaking world “to see that there is a young female Latin American astronomer that is being able to succeed both in science and in communication,” a reason why she produces her videos in Spanish.

Paneque said UM equally values her communication work and scientific research, “which is not always the case for a lot of academic researchers that also delve into science communications.”

The juggle between her academic career and science communication work is akin to having two jobs, Paneque said. She balances her two passions by recognizing “sometimes it’s not always 50-50.″

Her scientific communication passion also carries over to books. An avid reader, Paneque “wanted to write something that I would read and something that I would enjoy.”

While her intended age groups are from 9 to 15, adults read her books, which are also in Spanish, to learn about science in a fun and entertaining way, according to Paneque.

“Science has to be multicultural and it has to happen in every single language,” Paneque said. “I want there to be a lot of Latin American girls and women making a change.”

She receives inspirations for her stories, which center on a female protagonist, partially from when she taught young students. Although her research is in planet formation and protoplanetary disks, her books cover an array of astronomical concepts.

She also uses her science communication skills as an ambassador for UNICEF in Chile. She officially began working with the agency in 2022 and joined as an ambassador in 2023. Her projects include an astronomical ABC coloring page.

She plans to make 2026 a year of reflection.

“I would like to take this year just to really process what’s going on and be able to, instead of just reacting, planning,” Paneque said.

Her goal with her content? To open people’s minds outside of their echo chambers, Paneque said.

“Everyone thinks that they have the best argument or that they have the grand truth, when really everyone has a different perspective and the truth is something that we build between different people,” Paneque said.

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