For years, USF geologist Jason Gulley has been leading expeditions to the Himalayan Mountains, particularly the Everest area, to illuminate the poorly understood processes that drive cave formation inside glaciers.

“Most of the work that I've been doing inside glaciers has been with an eye towards understanding how they're going to be impacted by future climate change scenarios,” says Gulley. “For example, the way that caves melt glaciers in the Himalayas from the inside out was a process that nobody even knew was happening until we started exploring and mapping in that area. It turns out that the process is really important for setting the pace at how quickly those glaciers are melting.”

• Jason Gulley