Research
Alessandro De Maddalena (Milan, 1970) is one of the major shark experts in Europe. He is the curator of the Italian Great White Shark Data Bank, the President of the Italian Ichthyological Society, and a founding member of the Mediterranean Shark Research Group.
Alessandro De Maddalena is Doctor in Natural Sciences, graduated at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali (Milan, Italy), in the academic year 1996-1997 with a Thesis on the specimens of great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) preserved in the Italian museums of Natural History and the presence of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. Alessandro De Maddalena is the author of twelve books on sharks and his research findings have been published in over thirty papers in peer reviewed journals and in over sixty articles in popular magazines (see Publications). Alessandro De Maddalena is the President and a Founder Member of the Italian Ichthyological Society. The Society was created in order to promote diffusion of Ichthyology through courses, lectures, meetings, exhibitions, preparation of multimedial material, acquisition and conservation of publications, Ichthyological and marine-biological specimens, conduct research programs and collaborating to researches conducted by other scientific Institutions, promote collaboration between ichthyologists. IIS official website: http://it.geocities.com/societaittiologicaitaliana/ Photo ©: Alessandro De Maddalena, courtesy of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. 
Alessandro De Maddalena is the Curator of the Italian Great White Shark Data Bank, research program that has been initiated in 1996 to fill the several gaps in our knowledge of ecology, ethology and distribution of Carcharodon carcharias in the Mediterranean Sea. The work that followed permitted to collect substantial information about historical and recent records of this species from the Mediterranean, realizing a database that has no precedent for specificity and completeness. Works based on the data collected in this program are regularly published in scientific journals. IGWSDB official website: http://www.squalobianco.webs.com/
Alessandro De Maddalena is also a Member of the Mediterranean Shark Research Group, founded by himself with Lovrenc Lipej (Marine Biological Station of Piran, Slovenia), Joan Barrull and Isabel Mate (Barcelona Museum of Zoology, Spain) in 2000. This group was created as an initiative to promote a web of information exchange between ichthyologists who study sharks of the Mediterranean Sea, in a perspective of complete collaboration. MSRG official website: http://www.elasmoworld.com/mediterraneangroup/
Alessandro De Maddalena collaborates with the Global Shark Attack File (a compilation of shark attacks worldwide based at the Shark Research Institute, SRI, in Princeton, New Jersey, USA) as a regional investigator for the Mediterranean Sea. GSAF's quantitative data is available to the medical profession, the scientific community, the media and the public to provide accurate and current data on the subject of shark/human interactions. GSAF official website: http://www.sharkattackfile.net/