Heather Roman-Stork, an ocean scientist working with NOAA NESDIS’ Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), has been selected as the 2026 winner of NOAA’s prestigious David S. Johnson Award. She will receive the award on March 13, 2026, at the 69th Annual Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington, D.C.
Roman-Stork is being recognized for developing a tool called MUNSTER (MUltiparameter Near real-time System for Tracking Eddies Retroactively), which taps into satellite data to more easily identify and track ocean eddies for a wide range of applications.
“Eddies in the ocean are large-scale whirlpools that can be thought of as ocean weather,” Roman-Stork explained. “They play a major role in the global ocean circulation and have significant impacts not only on ocean dynamics, but also nutrient cycling, marine ecosystems, air-sea interactions, and navigation.”
MUNSTER takes advantage of a full range of NOAA satellites, including its GOES, NOAA-20, NOAA-21, and the NOAA/NASA Suomi-NPP satellites, to provide data on dozens of ocean variables, including eddy amplitude, eddy speed, sea surface temperatures, ocean color and more. This information is critical for understanding the marine environment and the behavior of marine life that ocean scientists and fishery managers depend on. It also helps support the U.S. marine economy, which provides 2.6 million jobs annually and contributes $511 billion in gross domestic product.
“Eddies can impact the behavior of marine life. Fish tend to congregate in anticyclonic ocean eddies, as they are convergence zones. In cyclonic eddies, the upwelling and resulting phytoplankton blooms can lead to other fish congregating there as well,” Roman-Stork noted.
“In comparison, whales and turtles are known to make their feeding grounds along the edges of eddies. By highlighting the locations of these features, fisheries and fishing boats can better identify where to fish, and fisheries managers can better monitor marine ecosystems,” she added.
As a complement to MUNSTER, Roman-Stork also developed the Multiparameter Eddy Significance Index (MESI), which serves as a first look indicator of how impactful an eddy is on the upper ocean’s circulation and nutrient cycling. By using MUNSTER and MESI together, marine managers and fisheries can make more informed decisions on where to fish or what regions to avoid.
An example of the Multiparameter Eddy Significance Index (MESI) from March 26, 2025.
The David S. Johnson Award
The David S. Johnson Award is named after the first assistant administrator of NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), and honors young professional scientists who have shown outstanding innovation in the use of satellite data for operational environmental applications.
“I am both humbled and incredibly honored to receive this award,” Roman-Stork said. “I could never have done this without the immense support of my mentors and colleagues, and I cannot thank them enough for both nominating me for this and for all their help and support over the past five years.”
About the awardee
Growing up in Simsbury, Conn., Heather Roman-Stork attended Boston College, where she earned a bachelors in environmental geoscience, and then continued her education at Florida State University where she earned a masters in meteorology. She received her doctorate in marine science from the University of South Carolina in December 2020, before coming to NOAA and working for STAR’s Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry.