Alex has worked as a marine ecologist for the last 25 years specialising in deep-sea and Antarctic ecology as well as coral reef ecosystems. He graduated in Marine Biology from the University of Liverpool where he also received his PhD in the ecology and genetics of marine invertebrates. From there Alex won research fellowships at the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom in Plymouth and at Southampton Oceanography Centre.

He went on to lead the Biodiversity Programme at British Antarctic Survey as Principal Investigator before moving onto the Institute of Zoology at London Zoo. For the last 7 years Alex as worked as Professor of Conservation Biology at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford.