Heather Stewart is a marine geologist at the British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, UK.

Her research concentrates on the geomorphology, or shape, of the sea floor from the coast to the hadal zone (depths exceeding 6000 metres). She looks at the processes shaping the sea floor including glaciation, faulting and modern-day sediment transport. She links her work on geomorphology to the composition of the sea bed and how that varies over a wider geographic area, working with marine biologists to look at the impact of these on the biological communities that live there.

Heather has participated on over 25 offshore expeditions, has published on many aspects of marine geology and habitat research, and has recently written two papers with Dr Alan Jamieson on habitat heterogeneity in hadal trenches and the location and depth of the five ‘deeps’ based on publicly available data.

Heather is a fellow of the Geological Society of London and Chair of the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland deep-sea forum.