Luiz Rocha was born in Brazil, where he obtained his B.S. and M.Sc. in zoology, and developed great interest for the evolution of coral reef fishes. In 2003 he concluded his PhD at the University of Florida and started a two-year Marine Science Network post-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Today, he works for the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. He published more that 30 articles in international scientific journals in subjects that range from taxonomy and community ecology to speciation and phylogeography of coral reef fishes. His main research interests are the evolutionary ecology, biogeography and behavioral ecology of tropical coral reef fishes.