After graduating, she worked at the McMurdo Station, where she serviced HVAC systems and built the laser diode for future NASA missions.

[clarification needed] Eventually Cave returned to her studies, and started a doctoral program at Stanford University working under the supervision of Thomas F.

[4] During her PhD she worked on electrochemical approaches that could be used to convert carbon dioxide and water into useful plastics and household cleaners.

[5] She built a gas analysis system that could determine the composition of electrochemical reactions in realtime and earned her PhD in 2015.

[17] Her awards and honours include; She has spoken at the Aspen Ideas Festival and been part of Science Foo Camp.