Matt is the group leader.  He did his Bachelors of Science at the University of Waterloo, Ontario in Biomedical Sciences.  He initially thought he would go into nursing or medicine, but was largely undecided at the end of his degree.  His senior year, he tried his hand at biochemistry by completeing an undergraduate thesis with Dr. Todd Holyoak.  What began as an 8-month project turned into another 6 years of graduate school (Masters and PhD, 2014 - 2020), where he learned the in's-and-out's of enzymology (kinetics and X-ray crystallography).  After defending, Matt moved to Ithaca, NY to start his postdoctoral training in Dr. Rob Thorne's lab.  Cornell is home to CHESS (Cornell High-Energy Synchrotron Source), which allowed Matt to learn several new structural biology methods, such as small-angle X-ray scattering, as well as high-pressure, multi-temperature, and time-resolved X-ray crystallography.  During his time at Cornell, he was also able to learn cryoEM through the TP-1 training program at NCCAT (National Center for CryoEM Access and Training).  After 5 years at Cornell, he was afforded the opportunity to start his own lab at the University of Cincinnati in the Department of Chemistry (2025).  

Book Recommendations: I am currently reading Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere anthology (fiction) and I would also recommend Range by David Epstein for the new graduate student (non-fiction). 

Album Recommendations:  Purgatory - Tyler Childers, Hitch-Hikin' Music - Classified, The Very Best of Otis Redding vol. 1 - Otis Redding, Tsunami Sea - Spiritbox. 

Movie/TV Recommendation: Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

Favorite Food: Popcorn

Hobbies: Cooking/baking, archery, hiking, reading.

Email: mcleodmw@ucmail.uc.edu