Dr. Bernhard Riegl is professor at the Nova Southeastern University Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. He is the associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI). He received the MSc degree from the University of Vienna (Austria) and the PhD degree from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He also received the habilitation at Karl-Franzens-University Graz (Austria). He was editor of the international scientific journals Coral Reefs and Sedimentology, and is editor of the book series Coral Reefs of the World and an assoc editor at the journal Scientific Reports.