Sanford Underground Research Facility, United States
I have always loved science and I’ve always loved writing. People used to say to me, ‘What are you going to do with an English degree,’ as if it were a terrible thing to study literature and writing and to want to be a better communicator. I almost bought into that at one time. I was ready to give it up and go back into something ‘useful,’ like study accounting or managing a restaurant. Then I started working in journalism in college—that was my first calling. Now I’m working in a place I could never have imagined. I never thought I would come to work one day in a suit and the next in hard-toed boots with really ugly safety glasses. I love being able to tell people what’s happening at SURF and what DUNE means for science and the communities in which we live. Lead used to be a mining town. Our facility was once a gold mine, and the largest employer in the region. Over 1,000 people worked there. When the mine shut down, people lost their jobs, their homes. Their families moved away. Their children moved away. What was once a thriving community was on the verge of disappearing. But this experiment brings so much promise to the region. I love the excitement I see from the people of Lead and the surrounding areas when we talk about what is coming.