Alessio Bernardi is originally from Santa Cruz, California, where he spent his time diving, spearfishing, tidepooling, surfing, and exploring the coastline. Those early experiences, along with time spent in and around the oceans of India, Central America, Africa, and South Asia, turned marine biology into a passion.

Alessio earned a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on reef fishes in caves and atolls, pairing in-water surveys with eDNA and metabarcoding to understand biodiversity and connectivity, and how fishes support reef function. He has contributed field and lab work with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama), One People One Reef (Micronesia), KAUST (Eastern Red Sea), The Wilderness Project (Zambia), and the UCSC Institute of Marine Sciences (California).

An AAUS research diver and PADI Divemaster, Alessio uses his in-water skills to support his research. At KAUST, he hopes to continue work on cave fishes and connectivity to deepen understanding of Red Sea reef dynamics.