Heidi M. Dierssen is a professor and optical oceanographer who specializes in developing and using ocean color imagery and data to understand ecological and air–sea processes from seagrasses to whitecaps. She is presently the Science Team Leader for the NASA plankton, aerosol, cloud, and ocean ecosystem (PACE) mission and serves as an expert on numerous international advisory and working groups related to hyperspectral aquatic remote sensing and imaging spectroscopy. She obtained a B.S./M.S. at Stanford University Stanford, C.A. in Biology in 1989, and a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, C.A. in Geography in 2000. She was a postdoc in Optical Oceanography at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory from 2001 to 2002 and at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Inst. from 2002 to 2003. She has been a Professor at the Department of Marine Sciences/Geography at the University of Connecticut since 2016.