As Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S) he is leading a large scale program in space agriculture - specifically the growth and adaptation of plants to space environments and the production of novel bio products in plants to enable long-term space habitation, and to use these innovations to improve on Earth sustainability.

Matthew is a current Web of Science Highly Cited Author (1 of only 196 animal and plant scientists globally). He and his research group have won a number of other awards, honours and fellowships for their work, including ARC Future Fellowships, ARC DECRA Fellowships, ASPB Highly Cited Author, SA Tall Poppy Awards, the Australian Society for Plant Scientists Goldacre Award, and the Australian Federal Government Science and Innovation Award for Young People in Agriculture.