| Luiz A. Rocha | |
| Birth Place: | João Pessoa, Brazil |
| Citizenship: | American |
| Nationality: | Brazilian |
| Fields: | Ichthyology Marine conservation Evolutionary biology |
| Workplaces: | California Academy of Sciences |
| Alma Mater: | University of Florida Federal University of Paraiba |
| Thesis Title: | Ecology, the Amazon barrier, and speciation in western Atlantic Halichoeres (Labridae). |
| Thesis Url: | https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00050270/00001 |
| Thesis Year: | 2003 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Brian Bowen |
Luiz Alves Rocha is the Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences.[1] He is also an adjunct professor at the University of California Santa Cruz[2] and San Francisco State University.[3]
Rocha has obtained a PhD in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida, and a BS in Biology and Masters in Zoology from the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil. He also conducted post-doctoral work at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the University of Hawaii.
Rocha has authored one book[4] and more than 150 scientific articles.[5] He is best known for his work in speciation in coral reef fishes[6] using advanced genomic methodologies to understand fish evolution,[7] and more recently has been actively exploring the diversity of deep (mesophotic) coral reefs throughout the tropics.[8]
He has also published an opinion piece in the New York Times about the problems associated with the creation of large marine protected areas in the open ocean,[9] and has evaluated the conservation status of hundreds of species for the IUCN Red List, including the endangered Social Wrasse.[10]
In 2019 he won the inaugural Margaret M. Stewart Achievement Award for Excellence in Ichthyology or Herpetology for his scientific contributions and scholarly impacts on the field of ichthyology.[11]