Rebekka Pentti

Research Instrumentation Specialist I - Marine Sciences Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: BSc (Hons 1st Class) Science Griffith University Australia

Research Areas: Marine conservation and outreach, scientific diving techniques, coral reef ecology, marine megafauna behaviour and environmental mitigation measures


Rebekka Pentti is a recognized environmental professional, marine scientist, and a diving instructor with extensive scientific diving and regional environmental consultancy experience. Pentti holds a Bachelor of Marine Science (Ecology) and Bachelor of Science (Hons) with First Class Honours from Griffith University, Australia. Her dissertation focused on benthic habitat mapping of shallow and mesophotic reefs in Southeast Queensland. Pentti has previously lead and supervised several environmental monitoring programs, including coral relocation efforts, marine megafauna assessments, and environmental baseline surveys, as well as managed environmental training and outreach activities. Pentti is confident on the ecological processes and annual variations of benthic communities and species and regional marine megafauna movements, and has extensive experience in dive instructing, scientific diving, and coral health scuba surveys both in the Arabian Peninsula and Australia.

Pentti joined NYUAD’s Marine Sciences Core in 2023 as a Research Instrumentation Specialist and a Dive Safety Officer. Her role includes overseeing and conducting fieldwork operations and facilitating the ongoing research projects of several NYUAD scientists and supporting NYUAD’s oceanographic research goals with external collaborators.