By Richard LeComte
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sierra Heimel has an award-winning passion for hanging out in low places: caves.
“I enjoy this sub-field of geology for the fieldwork,” she said. “Caves are like visiting another planet, and if you're lucky, you can discover a place or a thing that literally no other human has seen before. Caves are not only a great natural laboratory; they are also an explorer's dream.”
Heimel, a master’s student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, recently received the John W. Hess Research Award in karst studies from the Geological Society of America. The award supports graduate student research into cave and karst studies; karst is a