Conversely, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, although they have been ice-free for thousands of years, are not necessarily polar desert: they are kept "dry" by katabatic wind.
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It was named in 1992 by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after E. Imre Friedmann, a biologist at the Polar Desert Research Center, Florida State University, who in virtually every austral summer, 1976–87, led United States Antarctic Research Program field parties in the study of microorganisms in rocks of the McMurdo Dry Valleys.