Alvaro Mata is Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials in the School of Pharmacy and the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham. He holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Kansas, a Master's Degree from the University of Strathclyde, and a Doctor of Engineering Degree from Cleveland State University working with Prof. Shuvo Roy at the Cleveland Clinic. He conducted his postdoctoral training with Prof. Samuel Stupp at Northwestern University.

His group works at the interface of supramolecular chemistry, structural biology, biofabrication, and engineering to develop bioinspired approaches to design and fabricate innovative materials and devices for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. For example, by utilizing biological processes such as protein disorder-to-order transitions, compartmentalization, or diffusion-reaction processes as predictive steps of biofabrication methods, it is possible to grow functional structures that exhibit structural and functional properties of biological systems.