Patrick Burkhart received his doctorate from Lehigh University and has been a professor of geology for several decades. His expertise lies in the science of groundwater, while he also holds a deep passion for geomorphology, the study of landscapes. He revels in the history of exploration, with particular focus upon the quests of Ernest Shackleton and Charles Darwin—the latter of whom he has written and lectured about extensively. He has an affinity for the cryosphere—frozen places at high latitude and high altitude.