Erika Schagatay is the director of the Environmental Physiology Group (EPG) studying human performance in extreme environments, with a special focus on freediving. Erika completed her PhD in Animal Physiology at Lund University 1996, with a thesis about the human diving response. After post-doctoral work in sports physiology at August Krogh Institute in Copenhagen 1997-1998, she joined Mid Sweden University in 1999 as a lecturer. 2000 she became associate professor at Lund University, 2007 full professor at Mid Sweden University where she from 2015 holds the chair professorship in Sport Sciences. Her research covers many aspects of freediving, e.g., the physiology of diving populations including the Japanese Ama and the Indonesian Bajau. Other studies focused on competitive apnea divers, to reveal how they can breath-hold for over 10 minutes, swim 300 m distance underwater and reach 130 m depth on one breath. Many later studies are concerned with the safety of recreational freedivers. She has published over 100 original articles, conference papers and book chapters on freediving physiology, high altitude- and thermal physiology. Laboratory work has been combined with field expeditions to various extreme environments including the Nepali Himalayas, Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. Erika has always been engaged in teaching and started several university programs and courses, and she has supervised ten graduate students and over 200 BSc and MSc students. She has worked with safety aspects of freediving in the Swedish Sports Diving Federation, AIDA-international and CMAS, and lectured at courses for baromedical specialists in many countries.