Postdoctoral Fellow
Matt obtained his Ph.D. in 2013 at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) working on the diversity of deep-sea amphipods from the New Zealand continental margins. This work combined traditional taxonomic and molecular methods over different taxonomic levels (family, species, population) to assess diversity of this understudied, hyper-diverse and often cryptic group. Environmental variables collected on the same voyages enabled ecological interpretations on the observed patterns of diversity. During his Ph.D., Matt was also involved in collaborative projects on the diversity of terrestrial and marine Antarctic fauna as well as developing applied molecular methods for bio-monitoring with the purpose of measuring spatial/temporal changes in communities and/or detecting invasive species. He moved to Colorado State University in Spring 2013 where his current research interests are soil nematode and micro-arthropod ecology. These organisms are particularly important in Antarctic Dry Valley ecosystems and his Postdoc work at CSU will contribute to ongoing research in this area.