A native New Mexican, Heather Canavan worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory while she obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology from UC Santa Barbara. After spending a total of six years at LANL, Heather obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from George Washington University (Washington, DC) under the guidance of Prof. David Ramaker. Heather's graduate research, which focused on the application of surface science techniques to biological systems, was performed at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Brookhaven, New York), as well as the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, DC). Following completion of her PhD, Heather accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the Chemical and Bioengineering Departments at the University of Washington. At UW, Heather was a member of the National ESCA and Surface Analysis Center for Biomedical Problems (NESAC/BIO, directed by Prof. David Castner), and collaborated with the UW Engineered Biomaterials program (UWEB, directed by Prof. Buddy Ratner).

In 2005, Heather returned to New Mexico as an Assistant Professor in the UNM Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering. The focus of Heather's research continues to be the novel use of surface science techniques to study areas of interest in Biomedical Engineering, including the use of "smart polymers" as a novel cell culture substrate for biosensor and tissue engineering applications.