Matthew Peterson, Ph.D., is Co-founder, Chief Technical Officer and Senior Scientist at the MIND Research Institute, a non-profit education and research organization. Matthew is a thought leader in applying neuroscience and motivational research to the development of visual game-based learning environments. He is an expert in the neural basis of processing information and the acquisition of mathematical reasoning abilities.
Together with renowned scientists Dr. Mark Bodner and the late Dr. Gordon Shaw, he founded the MIND Research Institute in 1998 to apply academic research on the brain to educational programs for elementary school students. The three co-founders shared a vision to teach all children, regardless of socio-economic background, how to think, reason and solve problems mathematically. Matthew is a pioneer in this cutting-edge field. His focus is on developing math learning environments that initially convey sophisticated concepts visually, rather than verbally, enabling students to gain a conceptual understanding of mathematics regardless of language proficiency.
Matthew, who as a child struggled with traditional language-based instruction due to dyslexia, created the ST (Spatial Temporal) Math® software to teach math to students utilizing his unique non-language based visual approach. The revolutionary ST Math software has proven to raise students’ math scores on standardized tests and currently reaches 475,000 students and 16,000 teachers in over 1,375 schools in 26 states.
Matthew has spoken at numerous national and international math and education conferences, before the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, and most recently was featured at Tedx Orange Coastin 2011. After completing his undergraduate degrees in Biology, Electrical Engineering and Chinese Language and Literature from the University of California, Irvine, he went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of MIND’s Algebra Readiness curriculum, adopted in California in 2008, in addition to other technical and scientific publications.
