Ellsworth K. Eric Gunderson, Ph.D. (September 18, 1923 – November 10, 2015) was a psychologist who has studied human adaptation to living and working under the conditions associated with isolation and confinement.
The studies were also concerned with the development of performance criteria and other psychological data related to the stresses of living and working in the extreme, isolated Antarctic environment.
Gunderson's research revealed living for several months in the extreme field conditions of the Antarctic can lead to moderate psychological dysfunction in some subjects.
While visiting the South Pole in the 1960s, extreme weather at 9000 feet (2700 m) above sea level (sub-zero temperatures, 40 mile per hour {64 km/h} wind, and zero visibility) led Gunderson to develop altitude sickness.
Gunderson's research of psychological screening predictors for winter-over personnel in the Antarctica spans a period of over thirty years.