Heidi Sosik

OTZ Lead Scientist and Biologist

Heidi Sosik is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she has been on the faculty and staff since 1994, and currently holds the Stanley W. Watson Chair for Excellence in Oceanography. A biological oceanographer and inventor, Sosik and her co-workers have developed automated underwater analyzers that dramatically enhance scientists’ and resource managers’ ability to study microscopic organisms that fuel ocean food chains, interact with Earth’s climate, and sometimes produce harmful algal blooms that threaten ecosystem and human health. 

Sosik’s research and leadership have been recognized through numerous honors and awards including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; The Arons Award for Excellence in Teaching, Advising and Mentoring; a NOAA/ CINAR Fellowship in Quantitative Fisheries and Ecosystem Science; a NASA Agency Honor Award for Group Achievement; a Senior Scientist Leadership Prize; and being named a Fellow of The Oceanography Society and a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. Sosik serves as Director of WHOI’s Center for Ocean, Marine, and Seafloor Observing Systems, Chief Scientist of the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory, and lead investigator for the Northeast US Shelf Long Term Ecological Research (NES-LTER) program and the Ocean Twilight Zone (OTZ) Audacious Project. She is active in many national and international roles including associate editor for leading journals, service on strategic planning and scientific steering committees, and elected officer of the American Geophysical Union.   

Sosik holds S.B. and S.M. Degrees in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.