A major focus of Román's work is the development and applied use of nighttime visible imagery from polar-orbiting satellites. He pioneered and oversees production of NASA's Black Marble, a product suite that enables monitoring of power failures during major disasters and the assessment of underserved and vulnerable communities worldwide.
As a Disaster Coordinator with NASA's Disasters Program, Román has strengthened engagement with stakeholders from across industry, academia, civil society groups, and NGOs to improve decision-making in disaster scenarios and risk reduction strategies.
At the international level, Román is currently assigned as an agency representative to the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). His contributions to inter-agency and inter-governmental initiatives, and the wealth of satellite measurements available from his work, are providing stakeholders with the fundamental data sets and strengthened capacity required to better understand and mitigate disaster risks, promote sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure, while addressing the immediate energy needs of historically-disadvantaged communities.