Dr Heil is a senior research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division, and part of the ACE CRC’s Sea Ice Processes and Change project. Her research focus is on physical sea-ice processes, which she investigates using in situ or remotely sensed information and numerical modelling.

Her current research interests include: investigation of sea-ice dynamics (buoys and remotely sensed); sea-ice modelling (stand-alone and coupled, decadal modelling and short-term forecasting); fast-ice studies (in situ and remotely sensed) and mixed-layer processes; spatio-temporal variability of sea ice, and their interaction with polar oceans and atmosphere; and polar atmospheric processes.

Her previous work experience includes high-performance numerical modelling of the coupled Earth System (Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing, 2002-2004), and improving the treatment of sea-ice dynamics in numerical models, International Arctic Research Center, Alaska.