Robert L. (Bob) Matteri
Area Director
Pacific West Area

Dr. Matteri earned a B.A. in Zoology at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. He completed graduate studies in Stress Physiology and Endocrinology at the University of California-Davis, earning M.S. and Ph.D. (1984) degrees in Animal Physiology. His graduate work revealed previously unknown mechanisms for the negative effects of stress hormones on reproduction.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the Hormone Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, he uncovered novel relationships between the biochemical structure and biological function of hormones produced by the pituitary gland. In 1988, he began a joint faculty appointment with the NIH Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center and the Department of Meat and Animal Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. At Wisconsin, he showed that hormone glycosylation could be selectively regulated to change biological potency and circulating half-life.

Dr. Matteri joined the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in 1991 as a Research Physiologist in the Animal Physiology Research Unit, Columbia, Missouri. In 1992, he became the unit's Research Leader. He was named the Midwest Area Early Career Scientist of the Year in 1994 and served a detail assignment as Acting National Program Leader for Animal Production in 1999. While in Columbia, he developed an interdisciplinary cooperative research program between ARS and the University of Missouri and developed a personal research program, which gained national and international recognition in the areas of livestock growth and appetite regulation.

In 2001, Dr. Matteri became Assistant Director of the Pacific West Area in Albany, California, and in 2009, he was named the Associate Director. In July of 2012, Dr. Matteri became Director of the Midwest Area (MWA) where he oversaw a nine-state Area with over 1200 employees. Throughout his administrative career, he has led a variety of regional and national program and management initiatives. During his assignment at MWA, regional programs grew in the areas of "Big Data" research; technology transfer; and sustainable agriculture where MWA leads the USDA Midwest Climate Hub and hosts three sites for the ARS Long-Term Agroecosystems Research Network.

In April of 2017, Dr. Matteri returned to the Pacific West Area (PWA) as the Area Director. Consistent with the ARS mission, research in PWA is conducted under 16 of the 17 ARS National Programs and is carried out in eight states (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington).