He is also an Adjunct Professor of Engineering at the University of California at Davis and at the Livermore Department of Applied Science Campus. He currently supervises 8 graduate and 5 postdoctoral students.

He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Physics in 1974 from the University of Texas at Austin. Since that time, he has been performing research and managing scientists, engineers and technicians in broadly varying scientific projects involving development of lasers and radiation technology for science and industry. He has also worked in the physics department at Livermore and has held temporary positions at the Hahn Meitner Institut in Berlin, the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in Great Britain and Centre d'Etudes de Limeil near Paris. His fields of expertise include heavy-ion atom collision phenomena, Auger electron and x-ray spectroscopy of ions and atoms, spectroscopic diagnostics and studies of nonLTE plasmas, x-ray lasers, x-ray and optical imaging, and applications of lasers and optical technology to medical, scientific and industrial needs.

Dr. Matthews has written well over 180 publications in the scientific literature and holds numerous patents for applications of laser and imaging technology. He is generally considered to be the pioneer of the x-ray wavelength laser. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America and is a co-recipient of the 1990 Division of Plasma Physics Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research. He is a member of the American Physical Society, Optical Society of America, the Society of Photographical and Industrial Engineers and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers.