Bill LaPlante to Head Strategic Systems Department at Johns Hopkins APL

Bill LaPlante has been appointed head of the Strategic Systems Department at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

In announcing the appointment, APL Director Rich Roca said, “Bill brings to this new assignment a record of thinking independently, innovatively and strategically.”

“This is an exciting technical period for the Lab,” LaPlante says. “The nation’s strategic forces are being realigned and we’re realigning, too, to be in the best position to use our experience and capabilities to help the Navy develop, evaluate, and analyze new systems and operational concepts to meet changing requirements in this new strategic era.”

After joining APL in 1985, LaPlante worked in positions of increasing responsibility in the Strategic Systems Department for 12 years. From 1998 to 2001 LaPlante led the SSBN Security Program at the Laboratory within the National Security Technology Department, becoming NSTD associate department head in March 2001.

LaPlante has earned a master’s in applied physics from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Catholic University of America, where he teaches graduate courses in mechanical engineering at night.

LaPlante is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Physical Society, and the Acoustical Society of America. During his career he has been named to several prestigious Navy panels and advisory groups.