As a teen, Joy Ward worked as a tour guide at Indian Caverns, Pennsylvania’s largest limestone cave. “It was one of the things that influenced my early interest in science,” she says. “Imagine: seven or eight times a day you pick up a new tour group and give a talk about what a cave is like and how a cave is formed and all about the geology. Then you get drilled with questions. I can’t imagine a more perfect experience for a future scientist.”
Although the caverns were tame by spelunking standards, Ward continued to explore caves during her undergraduate years at Penn State University. “I’m not really into doing life-threatening things,” she says—and her closest call actually occurred outside a cave: a sudden sleet storm forced her to negotiate a cliff face that was a solid sheet of ice. “Caves are gorgeous inside. Their crystals just sparkle, so it ...
