Dr. Matt Thompson

Vice President of Wildfire Risk Analytics

Matt is the Director of Applied Fire Science at Pyrologix, a subsidiary of Vibrant Planet. He is a thought leader with proven success in innovation, communication and applied research. His work pioneered new horizons in wildfire hazard and risk assessment, incident response planning, decision support, landscape fuels strategy, and performance measurement – perhaps most notably the widespread adoption of the potential operational delineations (PODs) framework and related analytics. His research interests focus primarily on risk, systems, strategy, and decision analysis. Ultimately, he aspires to inform and catalyze actionable science to address the wildfire and climate crises with urgency and dispatch. Prior to joining Pyrologix, he spent 14 years in the Human Dimensions Program at the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, where he served as a core member of the National Fire Decision Support Center and the Wildfire Risk Management Science Team. Matt has a B.S. in systems engineering from the University of Virginia, a M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. in forest management from Oregon State University, a Ph.D. in forest engineering from Oregon State University, a professional certificate in strategic decision and risk management from Stanford University and was a Senior Executive Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Matt is the Director of Applied Fire Science at Pyrologix, a subsidiary of Vibrant Planet. He has pioneered advancements in wildfire hazard assessment and response planning, notably the potential operational delineations (PODs) framework. His research focuses on risk, systems, strategy, and decision analysis to address wildfire and climate crises. Previously, Matt spent 14 years at the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. He holds degrees from the University of Virginia, UC Berkeley, and Oregon State University, along with certificates from Stanford and Harvard.
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Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2016)
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USDA Forest Service Chief’s Honor Awards (2021, 2023)
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Executive education programs in leadership, management, and strategy (Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford)
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Hobbies: basketball, drums, reading, snowboarding
Why do you work at Vibrant Planet?

“I was very excited to join the mission-driven organization at Vibrant Planet and to capitalize on my long, productive partnership with Pyrologix. I appreciate the team’s collective problem-solving orientation and commitment to seek solutions based on sound scientific analysis and core strengths in risk and analytics.”

Leadership

Allison Wolff
Chief Executive Officer
Guy Bayes
Chief Technology Officer
Scott Conway
Chief Resilience Officer
Peter Dabrowski
Chief Financial Officer
Oktay Dogramaci
President, Vibrant Planet Data Commons
Dr. Neil Hunt
Chief Product Officer
Dan Myers
Chief Operating Officer
Tory Nelson
VP of Product
Dr. Hugh Safford
Chief Scientist
Joe H. Scott
Chief Fire Scientist
Dr. Chelsey Walden-Schreiner
VP of Applied Science