Biography

Greg Matera graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1984, double majoring in Chemistry and MCD Biology. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Davis, where he studied the transcription and transposition of repetitive DNA elements in the human genome with Carl Schmid. Dr. Matera completed his postdoctoral studies at Yale University in the Departments of Genetics and Molecular Biochemistry & Biophysics, where he worked with David Ward and Joan Steitz on the subcellular organization and function of RNA processing factors in mammalian cells.

Greg began his independent career at Case Western Reserve University in 1994 as an Assistant Professor, rising through the ranks to Professor in 2005.  In 2007, he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the rank of Professor. Dr. Matera is currently the Interim Director of the Integrative Program in Biological and Genome Sciences (iBGS). He holds appointments at UNC in the Departments of Biology (College of Arts & Sciences) and Genetics (School of Medicine). Furthermore, Dr. Matera is a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Curriculum in Genetics & Molecular Biology, the Curriculum in Cell Biology and Physiology, and the Curriculum in Neurobiology.

His honors include a postdoctoral fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund, a Basil O’Connor Scholar Award from the March of Dimes, a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society and a Journal of Cell Biology lectureship from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zellbiologie. In 2019, Dr. Matera was elected to the Board of Directors for the RNA Society, and is an active member of the American Society for Cell Biology and the Genetics Society of America. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the journals Chromosoma, RNA Biology and is Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in RNA Research.