2024 NSS Luminary Series – Hazel Barton
NSS 38664 FE, SC.
My Dark Life.
Hazel was born in Bristol, England in 1971, to a working class, and not outdoorsy, family. But she did have a mum that was very much into what good girls did. At an early age, Hazel learned all the arts that Jane Austin would describe as desirable in a lady. Her mum even tried to enroll her in ballet lessons, but unfortunately, Hazel was a daddy’s girl and found dirt and mud a compelling alternative. There are stories that she used to chase worms so they could be captured and eaten. It must be a Gollum-like tendency that may have had something to do with her eventual interest in caves.
That cave interest emerged during an Outward Bound course at the age of 14. Outward Bound is a rite of passage in the UK; a bunch of city kids are forced onto the countryside for a week, before being (most of the time) safely returned home. Hazel was a timid and shy child, who struggled to be away from home. She was also clueless, following mum’s direction of packing a ‘nice dress’ in case the occasion needed it. The dress led to an attempted humiliation so great, that 40 years later she still feels the need to mention it in a biography. Nonetheless, the Outward Bound course taught Hazel three important lessons: 1) the outdoors was awesome; 2) caves were fun; and 3) she would not back down from a bully. The last lesson unleashed the kraken, and by the age of 16, Hazel was a loud extrovert who didn’t like to back down from anything.
In the UK, most people attended Comprehensive School from the ages of 11 to 6, earning their O (ordinary) level qualifications before finding a job. From a fascination fostered by her grandfather, Hazel loved science and received special permission to take chemistry, biology, physics and math concurrently. Hazel was a mediocre physicist and an OK chemist, but thrived in biology. By 16 she had developed a deep passion for microbiology, mostly coming from seeing the invisible world through a microscope. But an experiment with a Petri plate, a hairbrush, and a slime mold led to more attempted bullying, which permanently fixed microbiology in her imagination.
Only people requiring more advanced education continued in Sixth Form in the UK. At the ages of 16 to 18 gaining their A (advanced) levels to attend university. Hazel wanted to continue in the sciences and studied her A-levels in chemistry, biology, and math. During Sixth Form, with a less structured environment, students are given the opportunity to take a sports elective on Wednesday afternoons. The options were mostly traditional, but one teacher, Jim Moon, offered a course in caving. Remembering how fun caves were, Hazel immediately signed up. Jim would bundle six clueless students into the school minivan for grand adventures 20 minutes away, in the Mendip Hills. If the administrators had known what went on during those trips, there is no way they would have approved.
Initially, Hazel was not good at caving. On their first caving trip to Goatchurch Cavern, she fell down a 10-foot hand line climb called the Coal Chute. The other five students gave Hazel six weeks before she would give up on this caving lark, but she didn’t. Instead, she continued to cave with the same group every Wednesday, even when class didn’t demand it. This increased to 2 to 3 times a week, exploring the other cave locations in the UK and developing friendships that continue to this day. Despite finding such activities incomprehensible, there were potential sons-in-law present, so her Mum did her bit to support these activities, valiantly scrubbing to try and get the mud stains out of the white coveralls that comprised Hazel’s first caving suit.
Hazel continued caving as she went off to college, where she accidentally studied molecular biology – a topic she pursues to this day. It was during this degree, that she was offered the chance to be an exchange student for a gap year in America, working as a research technician at East Carolina University. Hazel’s first trip out of the UK (and first flight) was to the exotic delights of Greensville, North Carolina, where she discovered beaches, beer and bacteriology. While all three came naturally, it was the bacteriology that would transform her life. On returning to the UK in 1992, she immediately applied for PhD programs in the US. She was accepted into 17 different programs (including Harvard and Princeton), but only two offered a full-ride scholarship. She chose Colorado, because mountains sounded exciting.
Hazel arrived in Denver, Colorado, on a pleasant Tuesday. Friends showed her around the first day, when she saw a license plate on a car that said ‘National Speleological Society.’ She wrote her phone number down on a piece of paper and put it under the windshield. The car belonged to Pat Jablonski, who called Hazel back that evening. The next day she attended her first Colorado Grotto meeting, and the rest is history. Graduate school is a blast – all of the fun of research, none of the stress of funding it. It was even more fun to spend every weekend caving. A fact lamented by her PhD advisor, who told her that ‘caves are going to ruin your career.’ But she persisted, developing deep, long-lasting friendships that continue to this day. The boys were pretty, the caves were fun, and then Hazel discovered Wind Cave. The caves in the UK tend to be small and original exploration is rare. Wind Cave is a twisty, tortuous, mazy cave that gives the opportunity for exploration at every turn. She learned to sketch, make maps, and explore not just in Wind Cave, but throughout the caves of Colorado and into New Mexico, including Lechuguilla. It was thrilling, and thirty years later, it continues to be thrilling.
Upon completing her PhD, Hazel thought she might work on eukaryotic organisms. A mistake that was rectified by Norm Pace in 1999, who liked to hire cavers for his environmental microbiology lab. Norm was a father-like figure in Hazel’s life (and continues to be), who taught her how to develop a strong, testable hypothesis. He also told her to go look at the microbiology of caves – with her caving skills, she could go where a lot of others couldn’t. It launched a scientific career.
Hazel is currently the Loper Endowed Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, where her lab attempts to understand microbial interactions and processes in cave environments. She has published over 130 articles on this work, along with co-editing two books: Women in Microbiology, and Lechuguilla Cave: Discoveries in a Hidden Splendor. To date, her work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US National Park Service, and NASA. She and her research have been featured in magazines including Vice, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, National Geographic Explorer, Outside, Science News, The Scientist, Popular Mechanics, Wired, Geo and The Smithsonian. She has appeared on NPR and BBC Radio and in 16 different documentaries on Animal Planet, the History Channel, National Geographic, the CBS Early Show and BBC TV. Furthermore, she also appeared in the IMAX movie, Journey into Amazing Caves. Through research activities, Hazel has explored caves in 37 countries on six continents.
Previously, she served on the NSS Board, as Chair of the Board of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, is currently the Education Coordinator for the National Speleological Society (NSS) Vertical Training Commission and serves on the Board of the Black Hills Caves and Nature Conservancy. She is also a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Science, and past Chair of the Committee on the Status of Women in Microbiology for the American Society for Microbiology, a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the NSS Science Award, the Alice C. Evans Award for the advancement of Women in Science, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
