Matt Gibson

Matt Gibson, Ph.D., is a developmental biologist and Investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. He joined Stowers in 2006 and was appointed President of the Graduate School in 2024, following five years of service as Dean.

Dr. Gibson’s research program focuses on the biology of anthozoan cnidarians, including corals and sea anemones, to illuminate fundamental principles of evolution and embryological development. His laboratory has pioneered experimental approaches in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, generating key insights into the evolution of animal body plans, the origins of centralized nervous systems, and the cellular mechanisms underlying cnidarian stinging cell function. More recently, his team has expanded into reef-building corals, extending these novel approaches to better understand development and resilience in an ecologically critical marine species.

Raised in rural Vermont, Dr. Gibson earned his B.S. in Biology from Yale University in 1994. He then pursued a range of formative experiences, including commercial fishing in Alaska, delivery work at a truck driver in Vermont, and a position at a patent law firm in New York City, before beginning graduate studies at the University of Washington. There, he investigated development and regeneration in the appendages of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, earning his Ph.D. in 2001. He subsequently received a prestigious Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Norbert Perrimon.

Dr. Gibson’s honors include the Harold M. Weintraub Award for Innovative Graduate Research, the Larry Sandler Award for the most outstanding thesis in Drosophila biology, and a Career Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. As Dean and now President of the Graduate School, he provides strategic and operational leadership for academic programs and graduate training at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.