Lisa Matisoo-Smith (born 1963) is a molecular anthropologist and Professor at the University of Otago.

Born in Hawai‘i in 1963, Matisoo-Smith also lived in Japan and California, following her father's naval postings.

[2] She completed her doctoral thesis No hea te kiore : MtDNA variation in Rattus exulans : a model for human colonisation and contact in prehistoric Polynesia at University of Auckland in 1996.

[5] As part of that project, she is the lead researcher for From Africa to Aotearoa, which is looking specifically at human migration to New Zealand.

[9] In 2018, she was awarded the society's Mason Durie Medal for social science, recognising her research into Polynesian migration across the Pacific.