Heier also spent parts of his research abroad, and was a member of the Apollo Project.
He subsequently turned down a job offer from the private sector to work on a doctoral thesis.
He was offered a senior fellowship at the Australian National University, but instead returned to Norway.
[2] He was a professor of geochemistry at the University of Oslo from 1968 to 1979 and in geology at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1979 to 1989.
Heier helped ensure that research positions relevant to petroleum were funded.