Mat's work involved the use of metal oxide catalysts for reactions relevant to the upgrading of biomass to biofuels. Most recently, he worked working on a collaboration with NREL to study TiO2 catalysts for the aldol condensation reaction. The main idea is to take volatile side products from biomass processing (which currently are not captured by the liquid product stream) and couple them together over a TiO2 catalyst into heavier, fuel-grade molecules to improve the yield of liquid biofuels.