Giacomo Montereale Gavazzi (BSc and MSc in Animal Biology and Conservation Ecology, Oxford Brookes University 2014, PhD in Geology, Ghent University 2019) is a marine ecologist with a strong experience in spatial ecology and underwater remote sensing. Within the Institute of Natural Sciences, he conducted highly multidisciplinary, experimental, and modelling research in the field of benthic habitat mapping; he was responsible for the design and implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive monitoring programme on Biodiversity and Benthic habitats for natural hard substrate communities; and the Belgian contact point for the Intersessional Correspondence Group on the Coordination of Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring (ICG-COBAM) of the OSPAR Commission.