Dr. Matt Covington is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arkansas. As an undergraduate, he was a curious student with broad interests and no real career plan. In 2002, he completed dual degrees in both Physics (BS) and Philosophy (BA) and then went on to pursue a PhD in theoretical astrophysics at the University of California – Santa Cruz. Throughout his undergraduate and graduate education, he led a second life as a serious expedition caver, helping to explore and map some of the deepest cave systems in the world. During the final years of his PhD, he realized that he could apply his mathematical modeling skills to the study of caves, and he had found his true calling. After completing his PhD in Physics (2008), he was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth Sciences Postdoc Fellowship for a project studying karst hydrogeology, splitting his time between the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and Louisiana State University. He then was awarded a second NSF International Postdoc fellowship and spent two years studying cave formation at the Karst Research Institute in Slovenia, working with fellow physicist and cave scientist Dr. Franci Gabrovšek. In 2012, he began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas. In 2019, he received a Fulbright US Scholar Award and spent another year working in Slovenia. His research covers a wide range of topics in karst hydrogeology and geomorphology, often combining mathematical models of basic physical and chemical processes with field work conducted in extreme cave environments. He has visited caves in over 25 countries and, by his estimates, spent more than a year and a half of his life underground.