Originally from Simsbury, Connecticut, Dr.
Heather L. Roman-Stork received her BS in Environmental Geoscience
from Boston College in 2016. In 2018, she earned her MS in Meteorology
from the Florida State University, with a research focus on tropical
meteorology, climatology, and scatterometry. She was awarded a PhD in
Marine Science with a concentration in Physical Oceanography from the
University of South Carolina in 2020, where her research focus within
the Satellite Oceanography Lab was on air-sea interactions,
intraseasonal oscillations, and upper ocean processes in the
Indian Ocean. While at the University of South Carolina, she
received the 2020 Breakthrough Graduate Scholar Award and the 2020
Marine Science Publication Award.
Beginning in December 2020, Dr. Roman-Stork served as a contractor
with Global Science & Technology, Inc. embedded in NOAA STAR’s
Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry on the Sea Surface Height Team,
where she worked to develop the Multiparameter Near real-time
System for Tracking Eddies Retroactively (MUNSTER) and its
associated Multiparameter Eddy Significance Index (MESI), for
which she received NOAA’s 2026 David Johnson Award. She has
also been a member of the CoastWatch Applications Team, the
CoastWatch training group, and served as a NOAA Co-Chair of
the Programming Committee for the Third International Operational
Satellite Oceanography Symposium (OSOS-3).
As of late June 2026, Dr. Roman-Stork has transitioned
into a Physical Scientist role in STAR with a focus on satellite
altimetry and multiparameter mesoscale and submesoscale
oceanographic applications. She has recently assumed the
role of NOAA’s Deputy Project Scientist for the Sentinel-6
mission, and serves as a co-convener of the Ocean Surface
Topography Science Team (OSTST) Meeting, co-chairs the
Sentinel-6 Validation Team, and serves as the senior
co-chair for OSTST Science Splinter III: Mesoscale and
Sub-mesoscale Oceanography session.
