Vasilis has a M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Aristotle University, Greece, a Master's degree in Diving and Underwater Technologies from Cranfield University, UK, and a Ph.D. in Fisheries Acoustics and Oceanography from University of the Aegean, Greece. His Ph.D. research was conducted within FADIO, a European research project that studied the dynamics of pelagic fish aggregations in the Indian ocean, where he specialized on the development of scientific software and methodology for raw data acquisition and processing of multibeam sonars.

He later joined Florida Atlantic University, USA, working at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute on the acoustic behaviour and ecology of marine mammals. When not doing underwater acoustics or writing software code, he'd rather play the drums.

Maria has a B.Sc. in Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology from Plymouth University, UK, and an M.Sc. in Marine and Fisheries Science from the Aberdeen University, UK. During her Master's thesis she investigated the behaviour of bottlenose dolphins around the coastal waters of Aberdeen, NE Scotland.

At present she is a research assistant and a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean, Greece. The scope of her Ph.D. is the in situ quantitative study of the coralligenous communities of the Aegean Sea, through an assessment of the spatial variability and the characterization of gorgonian populations. Her research involves the study of population structure, reproductive biology and present health status of Eunicella populations, as well as the community structure of the gorgonian understorey assemblages. This effort aims to enhance present knowledge regarding the coralligenous communities of the Aegean Sea, contribute to the understanding of interregional patterns, and provide baselines for the monitoring of future changes.

Maria is a certified diving instructor and a scientific diver.