Matthew was born and raised north of Winnipeg, Canada where he pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Winnipeg. There he received an NSERC undergraduate student research award (USRA) and worked on the synthesis of anti-diabetic coumarin analogs under the supervision of Dr. Athar Ata followed by an honours thesis on the synthesis and coordination of selenium-containing ligands under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Ritch. In the last year of his undergraduate studies, Matthew received a second NSERC USRA to work on the production of inversely-polarized phosphaalkenes at York University with Dr. Gino Lavoie. He then carried on at York University towards his MSc degree and research in the synthesis of a new series of group 4 olefin polymerization catalysts where he received an NSERC CGS-M award and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Upon completion of his MSc, Matthew hastily moved to Victoria, BC where he is working on the synthesis of main-group polymers. In his spare time, Matthew enjoys tabletop and video games, art galleries, travelling, trying new and peculiar foods, and cooking.