Prof. Matthee is a principle investigator in the Evolutionary Genomics Group of Stellenbosch University, and is the head of the Department of Botany and Zoology.
His research focuses on terrestrial and marine phylogeography and he is particularly interested to identify geographic regions in Southern Africa that are characterized by high levels of genetic diversity. These geographic regions act as biodiversity hotspots and, once identified, will enhance our ability to make informed management decisions. In addition, he is also closely involved in higher level systematics. Constructing an accurate phylogeny for any group of organisms is fundamental to understanding biology. Amongst others, it can serve to provide a robust classification system, supply valuable information on evolution and speciation and assist in explaining complex biological patterns. Recent technological advances (largely due to the human genome project) have enabled the generation of large quantities of accurate sequence data.