Dr Heyns is a geospatial and operations research specialist working at the intersection of humanitarian logistics, accessibility modelling, and spatial decision support. He holds a BEng, MSc, and a PhD in Operations Research from Stellenbosch University, where he is currently a Senior Researcher. His academic work focuses on multi-objective facility location optimisation and its application in complex, real-world environments. He is a two-time recipient of ORSSA's Tom Rozwadowski Medal for his facility location research, including wildfire detection optimisation using operations research methods.

He has extensive international experience as both a researcher and field practitioner. He has worked as a Logistics Manager and GIS specialist in a wide range of humanitarian emergencies, with deployments across multiple regions globally, including the Central African Republic, Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, and Bangladesh. In these contexts, he has supported operational decision-making under highly constrained and rapidly evolving conditions, combining on-the-ground logistics expertise with advanced spatial analysis.

He currently collaborates with organisations such as the World Bank and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and works closely with the University of Edinburgh. His work focuses on developing scalable, data-driven methods for modelling geographic accessibility, analysing infrastructure vulnerability, and optimising the placement of critical services. He has also applied his research to conservation and anti-poaching contexts, and holds anti-poaching ranger certification.