Again and again in her adult life, Dr. Cynthia Heil has felt an irresistible pull.

So here’s the bad part: It’s the pull of Karenia brevis, the toxic algal bloom commonly known as red tide.

The good part: Heil, a highly regarded researcher, is bringing her considerable experience to a newly established job at Mote Marine in Sarasota, Florida, where she’ll head up the Red Tide Institute. The institute was launched in October with a $1 million investment from the Andrew and Judith Economos Charitable Foundation. Heil is due to start Jan. 1. She will focus on studying the movement of red tide in Florida, and mitigation and control.

Heil most recently worked at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay. She is packing up her Southport home and preparing for the move south. And while she’s eager to begin work in Florida, the tough part is leaving Maine and pulling her 10-year-old son, Alex, out of the Southport school.

“It’s always hard to move,” said Heil, who describes herself as “a fifth-generation summer resident.”

“But moving from Southport is really tough.”

In Southport, she has family and community. Her mother, Sue Heil Kibbe, is a well-known Southport artist. In Florida, though, Heil has the challenge of a professional lifetime. Red tide in that state is an environmental and economic menace. The toxins from the algal blooms can enter the air and the respiratory systems of people—“A bad deal if you’re a tourist,” Heil noted—and the impacts have imperiled local economies. Heil’s job will blend the hard science of understanding how the complex organisms work and move, with deriving strategies for dealing with them.

”It’s practical science,” she said.

It’s also science that has kept Heil on the move, in a field that came as a bit of a surprise. After graduating from high school in the Pittsburgh area, she attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, intending to pursue veterinary science. One problem, though. “I found out I’m allergic to cats."

Eventually, she ended up in marine science. Master’s work took her to the University of South Florida, doctorate work was at the University of Rhode Island, and post-doctoral work in Australia, an experience she called transformative.

On a previous work stint in Florida, beginning in 2005, she headed up the state’s red tide program. “A baptism by fire,” Heil said.

She joined Bigelow in 2010, jumping at the chance to return to Maine and put down year-round roots. When Mote came calling, she was ready to listen, but being ready to go took some time, she said. With her mother living next door and being fully integrated into Southport—“a wonderful place”—there were many reasons to stay.

There was also Karenia brevis calling out to her.

”I keep coming back to it,” she said.

She’ll keep the Southport house. After all, one doesn’t just leave Maine forever.

“I’ll retire up here eventually."