Academy biologist Luiz Rocha wins 2021 Rolex Award for Enterprise

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 21, 2021) — Today, Rolex announced that California Academy of Sciences Curator and Follett Chair of Ichthyology Luiz Rocha, PhD, is one of five winners of the 2021 Rolex Awards for Enterprise, a prestigious award recognizing pioneers working on projects that expand our knowledge of the world, protect the environment, and improve human well-being. The award is in recognition of—and will help support—Rocha’s continued efforts to explore and conserve mesophotic coral reefs, relatively unknown deep-ocean ecosystems.

“I am honored and thrilled to be a Rolex Laureate,” Rocha says. “In addition to supporting future research efforts, the award is an affirmation of the importance of exploring and protecting these virtually unknown ecosystems.”

Rocha was selected for the award from a pool of more than 1,600 candidates by an international jury of experts, including renowned paleontologist and anthropologist Louise Leakey, environmentalist Wanjira Mathai, and San Francisco-based humanitarian Norbu Tenzing.

With the award, Rocha will be able to expand his research expeditions to the Indian Ocean where there has been little exploration of mesophotic coral reefs. He also hopes the award will increase awareness and appreciation of these unique ecosystems and the rich, unknown diversity of marine life they support.

“One of the biggest obstacles we face when trying to protect and manage deep reefs is that most people don't know about them,” Rocha says. “So awards like this have huge potential to raise the profile of deep reefs and generate public conversation about them.”

The relative obscurity of mesophotic coral reefs is partially attributable to the difficulty in getting to them. Indeed, Rocha is one of only a handful of scientists on the planet who is trained to dive to lower mesophotic depths which requires specialized rebreather equipment that scrubs exhaled breaths of carbon dioxide before recirculating the air to the diver.

While they are not as well known as their shallow-water counterparts, deep reefs play an equally important role in providing food and shelter for countless species. Similarly, they also face a myriad of threats, from climate change to ocean acidification to plastic pollution. As part of the Hope for Reefs initiative, Rocha’s research is integral to the Academy’s mission to regenerate the natural world by developing new knowledge about some of Earth’s most vibrant but vulnerable environments.

To learn more about Rocha and his award-winning research, visit the museum’s Twilight Zone exhibit or watch his recent talk on the Academy’s Breakfast Club series.