Following more than a decade of international and national planning and an intense week of on-ice weather delays, Priscu led the field team successfully drilled through the overlying ice sheet and sampled directly the waters and sediments of a lake hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The groundbreaking exploration of Antarctica's subglacial environment marks the beginning of a new era in polar science, opening the window for future interdisciplinary scientific investigations of one of Earth's last unexplored frontiers.