Born in Hawai‘i in 1963, Matisoo-Smith also lived in Japan and California, following her father's naval postings.[2]
She completed her doctoral thesis No hea te kiore : MtDNA variation in Rattus exulans : a model for human colonisation and contact in prehistoric Polynesia at University of Auckland in 1996.[3]
Matisoo-Smith's research focuses on using DNA to map human migration, especially in the Pacific.[4] She is a principal investigator on National Geographic's Genographic project.[5] As part of that project, she is the lead researcher for From Africa to Aotearoa, which is looking specifically at human migration to New Zealand.[6][7]
She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of New Zealand.[8] In 2017, Matisoo-Smith was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[9]
In 2018, she was awarded the society's Mason Durie Medal for social science, recognising her research into Polynesian migration across the Pacific.[10] In 2022 she was appointed a distinguished professor at the University of Otago.[11]
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