About the Core

The Evonuk Environmental Physiology Core (EEPCore) provides specialized research and educational capabilities for studying human physiology and is used by researchers investigating the human response to environmental stresses such as extremes of heat, cold, and altitude.

The EEPCore consists of a custom-built environmental chamber, equipment for human studies, and supporting areas. The environmental chamber is a special 12’x12′ room. It has a sophisticated heating and cooling system and walls made of encapsulated 4” thick urethane insulation. This chamber allows us to expose humans to different environmental conditions, and to try and understand how the physiology responds and adapts when we expose someone to heat stress, cold stress, changes in humidity, and even changes in altitude. We have had the chamber operating as cold as 0°F and as hot as 130°F. At the same time we can control humidity so that it can be an arid 20% relative humidity or a stifling 95% relative humidity, or anything in between. We can produce weather on demand. We even have infrared heat lamps to replicate the radiant heat of direct sunlight. Using molecular sieve technology, oxygen levels can be reduced to simulate altitude. We have had the chamber operating at altitudes as high as 18,000 feet, and can combine altitude with these other environmental conditions to simulate the environmental stress of nearly any setting. In simplest terms, if we wanted to study the physiology of a mountaineer climbing a high peak, we could drag hundreds of pounds of lab equipment up the mountain. Rather than take the lab to the mountain, this chamber allows us to bring the mountain to the lab.

Our supporting areas include a human subject preparation area where we can instrument a subject prior to entering the chamber, or allow them to recover after they exit the chamber. We also have “the duck pond”, an immersion pool which can be used to invoke rapid changes in body core temperature with either warm or cold water immersion.

Dr. Halliwill and Dr. Minson talk about “bringing the mountain into the lab.”

The EEPCore was established in 2005 and continues to operate today. The Department of Human Physiology also operates a newer environmental chamber that was installed in 2021 as part of the Exercise and Environmental Physiology Labs in the Bowerman Sports Science Center located within historic Hayward Field.