Matt’s work is driven by a single question: what practical steps can governments and societies take now to reduce the risk of irreversible global catastrophe later?
Matt is the founder and research director of Adapt Research (est. 2015), where he leads independent, evidence-based work at the intersection of public health, technology, policy, and global catastrophic risk.
With 15+ years’ experience producing peer-reviewed research and high-impact policy analysis, Matt has led major programmes such as the Aotearoa NZ Catastrophe Resilience Project (NZCat), helping bring global catastrophe resilience into practical national decision-making.
Matt is medically qualified and holds a PhD in philosophy. He is known for combining rigorous analysis with bold, systems-level thinking, developing real-world resilience strategies that span food and energy security, trade disruption, extreme pandemics, nuclear risk, and long-term governance challenges.
He also founded Islands for the Future of Humanity, a charitable initiative advancing island refuge and resilience as a key lever for safeguarding civilisation.
Matt’s published peer-reviewed research spans:
- global catastrophic and existential risk
- public health
- health technology assessment
- health economics
- health quality & patient safety
- human factors
- teamwork
- artificial intelligence & society
- ethics
- education
- philosophy of biology and evolution.
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