Professor Matthew Stott

Matthew Stott was born and did his schooling in Australia, before seeing the light and traversing The Ditch to work at GNS Science in Wairakei, Taupō as a geothermal microbiology research scientist. He is now a Professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury where he leads a geomicrobiology research laboratory that focusses on environmental microbiology and the microbial ecology of extreme, unusual and/or energetically-challenging environments. Much of his research centres on the microbial communities that inhabit hot spring systems in the Taupō Volcanic Zone in New Zealand’s Central North Island. This work encompasses a wide spectrum of topics including new methods for cultivating rare microorganisms, microbial genomics and function, microbial diversity and ecology, and the intersection of indigenous data sovereignty with microbiology, genomics and biotechnology. 

Matthew is an Associate Trustee for the Bergey’s Manual for Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria (BMSAB), New Zealand’s Ambassador for the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME), and is the co-convener of the New Zealand Microbial Ecology Consortium (NZMEC, 2008-present) a special interest group of the New Zealand Microbiological Society (NZMS). Matthew was recently awarded the University of Canterbury’s Research Medal (2025).  

For more information see Professor Stott's University of Canterbury webpage.