Matt Simpson graduated from the University of Southampton with a 1st Class Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Acoustics with Oceanography in 1998. During the vacation between the second and third year he began working for Professor Leighton. He undertook consultancy on an ultrasonics project for a multinational company; assisted in the running of the Fourth International Conference on Natural Physical Processes Associated with Sea Surface Sound (Southampton, July 1997); and assisted in a sea trial for oceanic bubble counting. The latter lead to his third year project using the inversion of acoustic attenuation data to determine oceanic bubble populations, for which he obtained the highest project mark in the year and was awarded a departmental prize.

Having graduated, he started a PhD in Underwater Acoustics.

In addition to his PhD research project he undertakes teaching, consultancy and contributes to related research projects.

• Research; Contributions to an EU funded project concerned with the detection of bubbles in industrial materials which will result with a product in the market place and contributions to a project on the acoustics of sonochemical reaction vessels.
• Consultancy; Acoustic measurements on the NERC Research Vessel 'Discovery' and ultrasonic tests and modelling for the process industry.
• Teaching; Laboratory demonstrations in physical acoustics and C programming classes for undergraduates.
•