Professor Matthiesen received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1988 for which his thesis was a comparison of the effects of microgravity and high strength magnetic fields on the crystal growth of electronic materials. After graduating from MIT, Dr. Matthiesen joined the Electronics Materials Department at GTE Laboratories, Incorporated as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff. During this time he was Principal Scientist and then Principal Investigator for a joint US Air Force/GTE Labs/NASA project to investigate the transient growth of gallium arsenide in microgravity. This experiment flew on the first Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS-1/STS-40) and on the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1/STS-45) as part of the Get-Away-Special program.

Professor Matthiesen's teaching responsibilities include heat, mass and momentum transport in materials, thermodynamics, solidification theory and crystal growth. He is the faculty advisor for Senior theses, Special Projects and the CWRU Undergraduate Materials Society. Dr. Matthiesen is responsible for the supervision of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral research programs and for the design and construction of the Electronic Materials Crystal Growth Laboratory. His research emphasis is on developing the understanding of and insight to: the heat, mass and momentum transport in processing of materials; growth and characterization of electronic and other inorganic materials; and the development of unique material processing techniques such as applied magnetic fields and growth in the microgravity environment.