EXPERT PROFILE

Matthew LaPlante, Ph.D.

Journalism and Communication Department
Associate Professor

Field: Journalism and Public Relations
Areas of Focus: Climate Analysis, Health, Journalism, National Security

Expertise

• climate science communication
• health science communication
• biological aging
• journalistic ethics
• citizen journalism
• national security reporting
• crisis communication
• online teaching/learning

Bio

Matthew D. LaPlante is an associate professor of journalistic writing at Utah State University, where he teaches news reporting, narrative non-fiction, opining writing, sports reporting, podcasting, crisis communication, and science writing. He is also a climate scientist whose work is focused on the variability and predictability of weather regimes across the globe, with peer-reviewed publications on drought, wildfire, snowpacks, monsoon, cloud seeding, and air pollution.

He is the author of "Superlative: The Biology of Extremes" and the co-author of several books on the intersection of science and society, including the New York Times best-selling "Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To" with Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, with whom LaPlante also co-hosts a podcast about the emerging science of biological aging and its potential interventions. LaPlante is also the executive producer and founding host of "UnDisciplined," a research-themed weekly program on Utah Public Radio.

Before joining the faculty of the Department of Journalism and Communication in 2011, LaPlante was national security reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune. In that capacity and as a freelance journalist since his appointment at Utah State, LaPlante has reported from more than a dozen nations on subjects including insurgency and counterinsurgency in Iraq, gang warfare in El Salvador, ritualistic murder in Ethiopia, the legacy of genocide in Cambodia, and the challenges of actionable domestic intelligence in the United States. (He has also written on less somber subjects, including professional soccer in the United States, sports teams as socioeconomic boosters in El Salvador, back-country skiing and snowboarding in Japan, voluntourism in Ecuador, the rise of evangelical Christianity in Cuba, and social media celebrity in Vietnam.) In addition to seven years of reporting at The Tribune, his bylines have appeared in The Washington Post, CNN.com, The Los Angeles Daily News, Christianity Today, The Associated Press, The Canadian Press, Deseret News, Salt Lake Magazine, Salt Lake Weekly, Eugene Weekly, and MLSSoccer.com.) He is a past recipient of the Ancil Payne Award and Quintus C. Wilson Award for ethics in reporting for his work in Ethiopia and El Salvador, respectively. He was also the recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Kavli Award and the American Society of Journalists and Authors Award for science journalism. He has twice been named "reporter of the year" by the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

LaPlante is a frequent conference and workshop presenter on online teaching and learning, particularly in the context of serving students who have not been provided the resources they need to thrive. As a research and communication associate of Graduation Alliance, one of the nation's largest providers of digital learning programs for public schools, LaPlante helped start an initiative that has supported thousands of adult learners who returned to school online to earn a high school diploma. From 2010 to 2017, he was the editor of NoDropouts.org, a website dedicated to promoting opportunity for underserved students. From 2013 to 2021 he was a member of the board of directors of the Reaching At-Promise Students Association. In 2021, he led a team of faculty members in launching a fully online program to support journalism students who are not able to attend school at one of Utah State University's campuses. In 2022, he was named Utah State University's inaugural Exemplary Online Teaching award-winner.

LaPlante is the former executive director of The NewFourth Organization, a non-profit that produced media and news literacy curriculum aimed at helping K-12 students develop their skills as "citizen journalists." From 2011 to 2013 he was the co-editor of The Liberty Well, a non-profit community news website covering the Central City and adjacent neighborhoods in Salt Lake City. In 2014, he delivered a talk at TEDxUSU, entitled "Why Superman Must Die So Clark Kent May Live," about why professional journalists should be helping train a new generation of amateur reporters. Since 2019, he has served as the news media representative on the Utah Division of State Archives' Records Management Committee, which reviews and approves retention schedules for Utah government agencies in support of reasonable and timely citizen access to government records.

LaPlante is a former intelligence analyst for the United States Navy, having served aboard the USS Nimitz in the Persian Gulf with VFA-147, a California-based strike-fighter squadron. He holds a bachelor of science degree in liberal studies from Oregon State University, a master of science degree in online teaching and learning from California State University East Bay, and a PhD in climate science from Utah State University.