Dr. Robert Schoene Presents Humans on High: An exploration of human adaptation to the world's high places

Dr. Schoene described how humans adapt and maladapt to low oxygen environments. The limits of human physical and mental performance during forays to the extreme altitude have been researched and will be described. Why can't we go higher? This question that has haunted climbers for years was explored. Some human populations have lived at high altitude for thousands of years. Some have done better than others and may provide insight to some evolutionary adaptations in the Himalaya and Andes. For lowlanders who are high level athletes, the question of the advantages and disadvantages of training at high altitude was touched on. Dr. Schoene described his involvement in many of these studies.

Dr. Schoene's Biography

Dr. Robert Schoene is a pulmonary/critical care physician practicing in Bozeman where he and his wife, Dr. Kimberley Marquis, also a pulmonary physician, came over a year ago. Dr. Schoene was drawn to the mountains years ago and climbed all over the world. He then had the good fortune of combining his passion for mountains with his career. He spent most of his career as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and UCSD and had the opportunity to be a climber-scientist on the 1981 American Medical Expedition to Mt. Everest, as well as an investigator of high altitude pulmonary edema on Mt. McKinley in the 1980's. He also has studied the high altitude natives in the Andes of Chile and Peru and is the co-author of High Altitude Medicine and Biology with Drs. John West and James Milledge, colleagues on Mt. Everest and many other high places.

The Café Scientifique was co-sponsored by Montana INBRE and Montana State University COBRE programs.