Matthew Summers

Biography

After graduating with a Master's Degree in Physics from Aberystwyth University in 2002, Matt spent 11 years working for the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. His early career was spent working on, and then leading, the MOD's underwater environmental protection research programme, examining the impacts of acoustics on sensitive marine species and developing operational mitigation solutions for the Royal Navy. Upon transferring to Dstl Porton Down in 2006, Matt led the consolidation of Dstl's environmental impact capabilities into a single team and became its Technical Capability Leader. Over the following 2 years, Matt oversaw the team move beyond an environmental focus towards sustainable procurement and sustainable development in the military context. In 2009, Matt went on secondment to MOD HQ where he authored the policy and processes for integrating sustainability into capability planning. Upon returning to Dstl, he took up post as a Programme Leader in the Dstl Programme Office, securing MOD support and funding for a new Sustainability Research Programme. Matt transformed this programme into the Resilience Research Programme in 2011, introducing new concepts such as energy security, critical resources and improved decision making. Matt then took up a post as Group Principal within an operational department in 2012 where he led the technical development of a group focused on analysis of complex cross-capability issues. After leaving Dstl in August 2013, he joined Cranfield in September that year in the Centre for Systems Engineering. In February 2016, Matt moved to the Centre for Defence Acquisition.

Research Interest

Matthew's research interests focus on the procurement, operation and support of complex systems and systems-of-systems that are designed to be resilient to external and self-generated disruptions.