Luiz Alves Rocha is the Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences.

[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.

[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.