Melanie Kaplan is a third-generation Washingtonian and an independent journalist whose travel and science writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic. She has interviewed Katie Couric, Isabella Rossellini, Alan Greenspan and Miss Piggy. Melanie is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School, and a former MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow and Vermont Law & Graduate School media fellow. Kaplan won the American Society of Journalists and Authors 2026 General Nonfiction Book Award for Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, which is her first book.